Space CLAN Season Two
by InFAMOUSpoptart
Summary: Not too long ago, five cats were selected to represent their Clans on a mission to save their species and way of life. Aboard the Space CLAN, those five cats set out on a journey across the stars to find a new home for their kind and help them escape the polluted Earth. (PARODY, OCs. SEQUEL TO "SPACE CLAN SEASON ONE")
1. E201pt1: The Crash

**If you're new to this story, **_**PLEASE READ SEASON 1 BEFORE STARTING SEASON 2! **_It's important to understand the story—you'll feel left out on certain jokes and plot devices if you haven't read the first season. I'm not gonna waste too much time recapping the story. **(Season 1 is of course, on my profile.)**

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Space CLAN

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Synopsis/Plot-Refresher:

Not too long ago, five cats were selected to represent their Clans on a mission to save their species and way of life. Aboard the Space CLAN, those five cats set out on a journey across the stars to find a new home for their kind, as Earth was rapidly deteriorating because of twoleg pollution.

Along their journey they encountered a malicious cat known as Scorpiustail, who was a member of a previous Clan space mission. The five cats of Space CLAN could not continue scanning planets with Scorpiustail constantly looking to attack them for personal reasons, so they fought back. In the climactic battle that took place, the Space CLAN was badly damaged, but they were able to decommission Scorpiustail's ship as well as take him prisoner.

They now cruise slowly behind a friendly alien acquaintance who is leading them as they seek ship repairs.

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Episode 1 Part 1 — The Crash

* * *

The alarm and flashing red lights pulled him out of his daydream. At least, he had thought it was a daydream. The flamboyantly colorful sock puppets were still in front of him, flapping around and acting out some comedic act like all sock puppets seem to do.

_Ugh, _Asteroidpelt thought, _they're real._

For the past few nights he had gotten no sleep. His new roommate, Oortcloud, insisted that he stay awake and watch his 'shows' every night. Asteroidpelt was once proud to be the first to witness the young cat perform, but his opinion on the shows later became entirely different.

He was the leader of Space CLAN, for StarClan's sake. He shouldn't be kept from rest all the time just to watch some silly puppet show. What's worse, is that while he was off drowsily fulfilling his duties aboard the ship, Oortcloud was somewhere else, snoozing after a long night of keeping Asteroidpelt awake.

The tabby tom sighed and tried to drift off to sleep. Maybe he could get some energy before Oortcloud would predictably prod him awake, telling him to "keep watching."

The vision of sock puppets soon faded to green and he found himself in a forest. A beautiful forest. It was just like his favorite little spot back at the lake: serene and secluded. He adored the feeling of the dirt beneath his paws, the gentle wind in his fur, and the sound of the birds chirping down at him from the forest canopy above. But above all else, he loved the sun. It was so powerful, and at the same time, so mysterious.

That was his happy place; nothing could bother him there. Or so he thought.

It came at first as just a bad taste on his tongue, but soon became a more threatening feeling. The dirt suddenly felt uncomfortably cold beneath his paws, the wind was nonexistent, and the birds fell silent. Even the sun that once shone magnificently through the trees had been shrouded with fog. It was a peaceful meadow no longer. It was a forest of nightmares.

Asteroidpelt turned around, looking in all directions for a way out. Then he saw it. But he wasn't quite sure what _it _was. It looked like a dark mist, grazing the forest floor as it hovered toward him. A low groan seemed to emanate from its core.

He felt like he should run away as fast as he could, but then it transformed. The cloud condensed into a shadowy cat. It was of average size; not threatening at all except for the fact that it was completely made of darkness. Asteroidpelt wanted to run, but his legs wouldn't let him. It felt like they were frozen to the ground, rendering him motionless.

Two tiny fireflies buzzed by his ear and then flew to the shadow cat's face, becoming its eyes. It tilted its head, as if seeing Asteroidpelt for the first time. Asteroidpelt braced for an attack of some sort, but the shadow cat simply padded off in the direction it had come.

Asteroidpelt's legs suddenly didn't feel so heavy anymore. He could run away, but for some odd reason, he didn't. Call him crazy, but he felt like that cat was leading him somewhere. Plus, deep down in his gut he knew that it wasn't real. Well, it wasn't exactly fake; he somehow knew that that forest was _very _real, but he just wasn't there in person. Perhaps it was more of a vision than just a regular dream. He followed the shadow cat.

The walk was uneventful. It was nothing more than stepping over dead shrubs and weaving around even deader trees. He made sure to stay a good distance behind the mysterious cat, but still close enough so that he didn't lose sight of it.

Finally, the forest ended. He stepped into a huge clearing with a strange crater in the center. The shadow cat stopped at the edge of the crater, and spoke.

"_This is what is to become of your home."_

Asteroidpelt stood there, wondering what that meant. Then it hit him. That wasn't exactly a crater; it was the lake, only dried up. He gasped, and saw his own breath. The area was _extremely _cold. He hadn't realized how much his body was shaking.

Ahead of him, the shadow cat turned to stare at Asteroidpelt. Its haunting yellow eyes seemed to pierce his mind.

"_Do not fail, and _wake up_."_

Asteroidpelt was more confused than ever. His vision was hazy, but he was still able to see the mist of the shadow cat dissipate and the fireflies that were once its eyes fly off, returning to their own agenda.

"Wake up; you missed the punch-line."

Asteroidpelt blinked, and new scenery lay before him. He was back in his bed aboard the Space CLAN, watching Oortcloud perform.

"Alright," the gray tom continued, "now that our audience is back, let's finish this."

The sock on Oortcloud's left paw gasped and said to the sock on his right paw, "I didn't know you owned a plastic flamingo!"

Oortcloud looked at Asteroidpelt expectantly.

He forced a laugh, but he wasn't sure how believable it sounded. "That was a great show, Oortcloud!"

Oortcloud looked skeptical. "You seem a little… weird."

Asteroidpelt forced his fur to lie flat. For the moment he was relieved to be there with Oortcloud, but the dream still had him shaken up. "I'm fine. I just had a strange dream after I dozed off."

"Oh, I understand!" Oortcloud nodded furiously. "I have strange dreams all the time! This one night, I dreamt that it rained frogs!" He looked around the small, circular room, looking like he was thinking _really _hard. "I feel like there was something I was supposed to tell you."

Asteroidpelt opened his mouth to speak, but Oortcloud cut him off.

"_Oh, yeah!_ Earlier, the puppet show was ruined by an alarm and flashing red lights." He frowned. "I had to restart the show from the very beginning."

Asteroidpelt actually did vaguely remember hearing an alarm and seeing red lights. The memory was so hazy; he would have thought it was a dream if Oortcloud hadn't mentioned it.

"Ready for part six of the show?"

"Um, actually, I'm gonna go see what caused the alarm. It must be important." Asteroidpelt was grateful for an excuse to leave. He was also grateful that he wasn't conscious while Oortcloud had apparently repeated the entire thing. One can only watch puppets for so long before you feel the effects coming on.

"But my show's important too," Oortcloud pouted.

Asteroidpelt hated disappointing people. But again, he _really _did not want to watch anymore puppets. "I'm sure Cometfur would love to see part six. You should go and wake her while I go see what caused the alarm."

Oortcloud's ears perked up. "You're right! But I'll have to do the first five parts so she'll understand the jokes. Know what I'm sayin'?" Without waiting for a reply, he raced out of the room with the sock puppets flailing helplessly from his forepaws.

Asteroidpelt let out a long sigh. Oortcloud was fun, but sharing a room with him was a bit too much. He couldn't wait until his room was available again, for it was occupied by their enemy: Scorpiustail. The mentally unstable cat had followed them on their journey for many sunrises until they decided to put an end to things. Eventually, with the help of a few other alien allies, Scorpiustail was captured. All that's left was to bring him back to ShadowClan for punishment. But how long would that take? Asteroidpelt couldn't handle another night spent with Oortcloud.

He walked out the automatic door of Oortcloud's room and turned to the left, heading for the bridge. He was careful not to make eye contact with Oortcloud—who was meowing at Cometfur's door—as he did so. There was also the struggle of climbing over a clog of twoleg exercise equipment in the hallway. That was the outcome of another adventure they had had a few sunrises ago.

The bridge wasn't exactly a breath of fresh air, but it was better than Oortcloud's room, which was stuffy like all of the private rooms aboard the ship. To the right was the airlock, their portal to the outside world; the far-right corner was where their food bowls lay; on the far center was their elevated seats, where they go to hold utmost control over all the ship's functions; to the far left corner was a room where Moondust—the CLAN's medicine cat— stored her bottled herbs; to Asteroidpelt's immediate left was a raised platform where they stood to equip their space suits; and in the exact center of the bridge was the Star Map. It was a beautiful table that projected a map of stars into the air above it. But they mostly used it for lounging purposes.

Almost directly ahead of him, Moondust sat in her seat—the one on the far left—staring at a holographic monitor that could surely only give bad news.

"What was with that alarm earlier?" Asteroidpelt asked, moving closer.

Moondust turned to face him. "We're not sure. Something went wrong while we were asleep, but we can't figure out what."

Asteroidpelt took a moment to interpret her words. After an incident with Scorpiustail a while ago, Moondust seemed to confuse the words _I _and _we._ It made her hard to understand and he was slow to get used to it.

"Wait," Asteroidpelt said. "Could that alarm have something to do with Scorpiustail?"

Moondust's eyes widened and she looked to the door at the back of the bridge, but there was no one there. She looked back at Asteroidpelt and stepped down from her raised seat. "We must warn the others!"

With Asteroidpelt wondering if she meant _we _as in _she and he, _or just _we _as in _she, _she scampered off toward the door. Asteroidpelt decided to follow. If Scorpiustail really was loose then they would have to fight, and Moondust hardly had any Warrior training. As he passed the Star Map, he glanced back at the wall near their food bowls. There was a small little hole in the wall; an entrance to a mouse house.

Asteroidpelt knew three little mice— well, mouse _toys— _that lived there. In their previous confrontation with Scorpiustail, the second oldest, Lyra, had somehow managed to defeat a couple enemies all by herself. Asteroidpelt had no idea how she had done it, but her skills could prove useful if they got into another fight. He also still had no idea how a mouse toy was able to move around and speak. He decided to put a "pin-tac" on the mental debate. It was an expression he had learned from Oortcloud, who was once a loner from behind Wal-Mart.

He padded through the door and was met with the same clog of exercise equipment. It was yet another thing he had learned not to question. All of that stuff had somehow come out of a medium-sized room at the back of their ship—the cargo room. He sighed as he reached the top, standing on an overturned treadmill. They really needed to throw it out. But at least the exercise equipment was still serving its purpose. They got great cardio walking through the hallway.

He jumped the rest of the way down, landing softly on the cool, white floor of the ship. Moondust was up ahead, resting her head against the door to Cometfur's room. Asteroidpelt admired her sense; the majority of cats aboard the ship might barge in, risking putting themselves into danger. Instead of that, the medicine cat was listening for danger.

She looked confused, and whispered, "We hear Oortcloud meowing and Cometfur groaning."

"Oh," Asteroidpelt meowed, "she's fine. She's just watching a puppet show."

Moondust nodded as if that were completely ordinary. "You check Starscreech's room. We'll check Scorpiustail's—um, we mean, _your_ old room."

Asteroidpelt side stepped to his right, pressing himself against Starscreech's door. Assuming you were heading from the bridge, the three toms' rooms were on the right side of the hallway, and the two she-cats' rooms were on the left. In order from closest to farthest from the bridge, the rooms belonged to Starscreech, Cometfur, Oortcloud, Moondust, and Asteroidpelt.

Inside the room, he heard nothing at first. Then there was a muffled explosion and the voice of a tiny kit.

"Wow, get a life. Only maggots use the rocket launcher."

Asteroidpelt heard a chuckle of amusement. Starscreech. It didn't sound like he was in any danger at all. The explosion must have been from a video or something. Starscreech had once told them not to worry if they heard strange noises coming from his room for that very reason.

"I think Starscreech is fine," he whispered to Moondust.

She had her head up to the door of Asteroidpelt's old room. "We don't hear anything from in here."

"He could be sleeping," Asteroidpelt offered, though he hated to remind himself of his own lack of rest.

"Or he escaped," Moondust countered. "But we don't see how that's possible. The room's sealed off, right?"

Asteroidpelt thought back to their previous adventures. Getting thrown around by a space storm, blowing up Wal-Mart, and the _catnip incident _came to mind. On the latter, they had used the air ducts of the ship to infiltrate Cometfur's room.

"The air ducts," he said. "Maybe he used those. We used them to get into a room, so maybe he could use them to get out."

Moondust's tail swung back and forth across the floor, obviously not pleased with the realization. "Should we investigate some more, or call together a CLAN meeting?"

Asteroidpelt wasn't sure why 'investigating' was an option. All they had to do was open the door to his room and see for themselves if Scorpiustail was still there. But then again, he didn't want to open the door. Scorpiustail scared him, and he imagined that the evil cat might be waiting on the other side, prepared to leap out when the door opened.

"I'll call together a meeting."

* * *

"Earlier, when most of us were asleep, an alarm went off throughout the ship."

Asteroidpelt looked down at his four CLAN members. Moondust, wide awake and alert; Oortcloud, awake but distracted; Cometfur, asleep; and Starscreech, staring up at him expressionlessly. Asteroidpelt sighed and stepped down from the Star Map, which he sometimes used to make announcements.

Moondust glanced at Cometfur and slapped her awake. "We're in a meeting, Cometfur. Show some respect."

Cometfur opened a single eye, but after seeing how bright the room was she shut it tight. "I just woke up. How 'bout _you _show some respect?"

Moondust _humph_ed. "Just pay attention."

With her eyes still closed, Cometfur said, "I'm listening."

Asteroidpelt stood by during all of it, waiting for them to stop. He had learned not to get between the sibling's bickering. "Alright then." He took a few heartbeats to find his path of thought. "The alarm could mean anything; ship malfunction, collision course, escaped fugitive. We need to figure out what it—"

"Or we could just ask Mr. Jingles."

Heads swiveled to look at Starscreech. He rarely spoke up during meetings, but when he did they could safely assume that something obvious had been overlooked. And tom, was it obvious. Asteroidpelt wanted to crawl away after what he pointed out. A kit could have seen it.

"Um," Asteroidpelt said, "Mr. Jingles?"

A few extra computer monitors in the bridge flashed to life. "Yes?" came a voice through the speakers around the room. It was the ship's Artificial Intelligence, Mr. Jingles.

"Do you know what caused the alarm?"

The AI took a moment to respond. "There was an alarm?"

Asteroidpelt heard Moondust facepaw. Yes, _heard _it. "We're all pretty sure there was an alarm. You didn't know?"

"I was in sleep mode. I can only keep track of so much, alright? While I present no facts, I can assume that the alarm was caused by either a ship malfunction, collision course, or a Space McDonald's detected in the vicinity."

_What's a McDonald's? _Asteroidpelt thought. "Is there any way you can figure out what caused the alarm?"

"That's what I'm doing," Mr. Jingles said. He pulled up a holographic screen with a loading bar on it, as if to prove his case. "I'm scanning the ship for any problems. So far, nothing to report."

Moondust spoke up that time. "Can you scan Asteroidpelt's room just to be safe?"

"Jeez, I just woke up. Gimme a minute."

Cometfur snickered, but she didn't budge. "See Moondust? Even for someone as smart as Mr. Jingles, it's hard to wake up."

Moondust didn't reply. The information she was anticipating was much direr than arguing with her sister.

"Alright, I've finished my scan of Asteroidpelt's room. The room is currently—"

There was a _snap _from somewhere in the room and Mr. Jingles' voice became garbled. The voice cleared after just a few heartbeats, but it wasn't Mr. Jingles. Instead of the light-hearted and chipper voice of Mr. J, there was instead a much deeper and menacing voice.

It said, "_Engaging plan: Oasis Culprit."_

Asteroidpelt felt his mood change from hopeful—as in, _hopefully _a bad guy isn't loose in the ship—to dreadful—as in, he was _dreading_ the moment where he would encounter Scorpiustail again. He almost wished he had finished him off back aboard his ship, the Red Giant. _Almost. _

After a quick glance out a window, he could tell that the ship had veered to the left, abandoning their previously set course and heading in a new direction. Around him, panic was starting to break out among the CLAN members.

Moondust ran to hide in her medicine storage room, Cometfur started to wake up, Starscreech sat normally as always, and Oortcloud ran circles around the room. Maybe most of them weren't quite 'panicking,' but they were at unease. After taking a look around, Cometfur began to show concern for the state of their ship, which had red lights flashing and alarms blaring. And Asteroidpelt could have sworn he detected a hint of worry beneath the amber shields that were Starscreech's eyes.

He wiped all signs of uncertainty from his own face and tried to call the group back together. "Calm down!" He noticed that the primary source of panic in the room was coming from Oortcloud, who was still running laps and letting out an occasional yelp.

With a brief nod to Starscreech, Asteroidpelt flicked his tail at Oortcloud. Starscreech dipped his head in response and marched over to a spot that was right in Oortcloud's path. As the hyper, gray tom scurried by, Starscreech reached out with his muzzle and grabbed the younger cat by the scruff of his neck; the momentum from running sent Oortcloud's rear legs past his restrained upper body.

Asteroidpelt turned to Moondust's medicine storage room. "It's alright! There's no need to—" But then he noticed that she had already crept out, and was staring out a small porthole next to the storage room's door. "What's wrong?"

She kept staring. Asteroidpelt couldn't decide if she looked horrified or awestruck. Cometfur seemed to be fully awake, so of course she had to offer her input.

"She's just being over-dramatic. Probably just a space bug on the window or something."

Asteroidpelt wondered if there were really bugs in space. He guessed that it was possible, considering they had seen a space donkey just a few sunrises ago. If space bugs really did exist, he hoped they weren't fleas or ticks. He shook his head. Sometimes he could get so distracted.

"Starscreech, would you go and check my room? See if Scorpiustail's still there. And take Cometfur; you two are the best in combat."

Starscreech nodded and gestured for Cometfur to follow. They padded out of the room, leaving Asteroidpelt alone with a frolicking Oortcloud and a dazed Moondust. He turned to Oortcloud.

"You go and make sure the little mice are okay." Oortcloud nodded violently. "You know them best, after all. And ask them if they've seen anything involving Scorpiustail. Something really fishy is arising here."

"I like fish with my morning cup o' joe!" And with that, Oortcloud scampered over to the corner of the ship where the mice had made their house's entrance—conveniently right next to the food bowls.

Asteroidpelt was left wondering what a "cup o' joe" was, but he dismissed it as being irrelevant. Due to his previous life of being a loner, Oortcloud must know more about that joe in a cup than your average cat.

He winced every time the alarm sounded. It got annoying very quickly, and it was rough on his ears when his mind wasn't rested.

Moondust looked out the sectioned glass dome at the head of the ship instead of staring out the porthole as she previously was. It was as though she were trying to get a better perspective on moving prey. Asteroidpelt ran over to her.

"What do you see? I know it can't be a bug." His jaw dropped as he took his first look over her shoulders and out the window. "Great StarClan. That looks…" But it didn't sound as though he were willing to finish his sentence.

Outside the window was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Even more beautiful than the sun. And believe me, _he loved the sun. _Initially he mistook it for some kind of hallucination or simply a vision in a dream, but then he saw just how real it was.

It was a celestial body, no doubt. Its surface was purple and white, and it radiated a bluish glow; possibly reflecting light from a nearby star. There were various colored moons orbiting all around it, making the entire image look like a mass of polka dots. Filling in some of the negative space were strange cloud-like bodies. They reminded him of the space storm once again, except that those clouds looked far more inviting. They were fluffy, like the good clouds back on Earth.

"…Amazing," he finally finished.

"Yes, it is," Moondust replied. "But, as much as we'd like to keep staring at it, we have a problem."

Asteroidpelt didn't take his eyes off of it as he said, "what's that?"

"Our ship is turning toward it when we should be on a set course."

The tom snapped out of his trance. Their ship was horribly damaged in the previous fight with Scorpiustail. They had been following a friendly alien named Raj, heading for the nearest repair shop to get their ship fixed. Emphasis on '_had _been.' Asteroidpelt looked out the ship's glass dome, but didn't see Raj's starship. He wondered how long they had been separated.

"This is bad."

"You don't say," Moondust shot back. "Excuse our cliché, but we don't think this could get any worse."

Then Starscreech and Cometfur ran into the room, panting.

"Scorpiustail's gone," Cometfur blurted out.

"And so is the NYAN 5," Starscreech added.

The NYAN 5 was the ship's landing module. They had used it a few times before to disembark.

Asteroidpelt felt dizzy. Just yesterday they had thought that they had it made. They were on their way to fix their ship, scan some more planets, and return Scorpiustail to ShadowClan. But then they were suddenly heading to some random planet, they had lost their prisoner, and their ship's computer had said something unsettling about initiating a plan. "This is _really _bad."

Oortcloud and three little mouse toys walked up to join them.

"They have news," Oortcloud said.

The tallest, Aquila, cleared her throat—if toy mice even had throats, that is. "We haven't seen anything recently, but we did witness _something _while we were aboard the Red Giant. Almost immediately after you all—" She gestured to the cats. "—and Lyra walked out of our ship and into the Red Giant's cargo bay, someone else came in. We aren't quite sure who it was, but it looked like Scorpiustail."

Lyra and the smallest mouse sibling, Susan, nodded.

Oortcloud prodded Aquila with a forepaw. "Go on, tell them what you saw."

Aquila gulped, and then continued. "I saw him do… _nothing_."

"Horrible, isn't it?" Oortcloud said with a grimace.

Cometfur's tail swished, making it obvious that she was annoyed. "You made a big deal over you seeing him do _nothing?_"

Even Starscreech let out a sigh, which was enough to say that that was a waste of time.

"Well," Aquila began, "he did something. I just wasn't around to see it."

Moondust looked impatient. "Stop stopping. Explain to us why you weren't around to see it."

"She ran back inside the mouse house!" Lyra interrupted. She gave her sister a grudging look. "And she only managed to nab five pieces of left-over cat food."

Oortcloud's eyes narrowed. "So that's where those five pieces went."

Asteroidpelt took a deep breath. He didn't want to feel like he was interrogating anyone, so he tried to be as nice as possible. "I get that you wanted to be safe, Aquila, but how is it you were able to miss an entire conversation? Your home's entrance could have at most just been a few fox-lengths from him."

"I didn't want to risk standing in the doorway," Aquila explained quickly. "I've seen way too many classic cartoons to understand that the mouse should _always _be cautious. And I would have listened from inside our house, but the soundproof wall lining we recently installed kind of prevented that."

"You installed soundproof wall lining?" Asteroidpelt said.

"Of course," Lyra spoke up. "You cats are way too loud. We couldn't get a good night's sleep without having to hear you screaming over some space storm or flea infestation."

Starscreech looked confused. "You never told me about a flea infestation."

"It's not that important," Asteroidpelt replied. "What we need to focus on is where Scorpiustail went and what this plan—_Oasis Culprit_—means."

"We think that's the least of our worries."

Heads turned to find the source of the voice. Moondust stood at the very front of the ship, gazing out upon the purple planet before them. It was directly ahead of their ship; if they moved straight forward from there on out they'd undoubtedly crash into it.

"Why are we headed for that planet?" Asteroidpelt questioned, though he knew no cat could answer it. "Mr. Jingles?" he added.

The AI coughed. "I'm not sure why we've—_cough_—changed course so suddenly."

Asteroidpelt knew something was wrong. "You sound… sickly."

"Strange, is it not? One moment I'm—_cough_—as healthy as a kittypet, and the next I feel like I have green-cough."

Asteroidpelt agreed that it was strange, but he didn't see how living with twolegs could be considered 'healthy.' "Is there anything you can do to steer us away?"

"I've been trying but—_cough_—nothing is working. Something has corrupted our ship."

Asteroidpelt dismissed him and ran over to Moondust. "If we're going to crash," he whispered, careful not to let the others hear him just yet, "how can we make sure we survive?"

Moondust didn't look away from the approaching planet. "Strap ourselves into our seats. The glass hull won't break. Remember the force field stuff?"

Asteroidpelt nodded. The force field stuff. That made sense. He raised his voice from a whisper so that the others could hear him. "We're going to strap ourselves into our seats so that we can be safe during this _landing." _He was careful not to use the word _crash._

Cometfur raised a paw. "Why didn't we do that while we were getting tossed around in the space storm?"

Asteroidpelt shrugged. "I don't know." He climbed up into his seat—the tallest of them all—and shifted as he felt a harness somehow automatically move around him until it magnetically locked into place. Taking a quick glance to his left and right, he made sure his Clanmates were safely strapped in as well.

Then they awaited their arrival to the mysterious planet.


	2. E201pt2: Once in a Yellow Moon

**A/N:** Alright, here's Part 2 of Episode 1. I had to do a bit of last-minute editing because some of it wasn't written all that well. It's sort of become a Space CLAN tradition of mine to come back to these chapters a few months later and edit them again anyway. I like to move forward with writing the story and come back to polishing the chapters later on.

I also think I forgot to upload the cover art for this story when I posted it. Kind of embarrassing that people saw my goofy-looking smiling cat profile pic instead of the Space CLAN logo, although goofiness does define this story.

Final thing I have to say is that while editing this, I made some great progress in developing the plot of this season. This first episode has been all about reintroducing the characters, story, and something else which you'll see in this chapter. Across the next few episodes I hope to give you more intense and exciting stories. Some of my ideas have actually been in the works since I started Season 1. Now all that's left is to write them.

**Thank you for your time with reading my author's note and/or story!**

* * *

Space CLAN

E201pt2 – Once in a Yellow Moon

* * *

The ship didn't turn. It was locked on to the majestic planet before them. And it was huge, too. They had closed the distance between their ship and the planet and only then did they see just how giant it was. The majority of the planet's surface was purple. Land, maybe? The other portions were a bone white. Possibly the ocean, which Oortcloud hoped with all his might was made up of milk and cream.

He sat impatiently in his seat, hating the confinement. Flames soon engulfed the glass dome as they entered the planet's atmosphere bow-first. That made it hard to see where exactly they would land. Oortcloud didn't care in the slightest though. All he wanted was a wide-open field to run through.

He looked to his right and saw the fear-stricken expressions of his teammates. If only they could learn to enjoy things a bit more. While most of them were screaming, Oortcloud let out whoops and cheers of enjoyment. Starscreech noticed it and gave him a disapproving shake of his head, so he stopped with the noises.

But he still had fun. The beautiful landscape below the flames on their ship was fun to look at. He just hoped that the air was "breathable," as they put it. He wanted to explore that landscape and go on an adventure.

Just when he considered praying to StarClan to help them survive the crash, the ship slowed drastically and seemingly hung vertically in midair. He assumed it was either some kind of backwards engines on the ship or parachutes that were slowing their descent. Whatever it was, he hated it. It was only making him wait longer. He struggled against the restraints.

"Oortcloud, what's wrong?" Moondust called to him. "Are you hurt?"

Oortcloud huffed as he struggled. "Every second I spend here trapped in these binds is another second my spirit grows against them! I _will _break free!"

Moondust diverted her attention from him to check on the others, as if that was confirmation that he was perfectly fine. Oortcloud simply stared down upon the vast landscape. It looked as though all plant-life was various shades of blue, red, or a mixture of the two. To the far right he saw a forest that was almost entirely pink, which instantly reminded him of the beloved strawberry poptarts from the dumpster outside Wal-Mart.

As they got closer, he noticed that they were landing in a valley. A row of huge mountains and cliffs ran along both sides of their assumed landing point. Those mountains were covered in fluffy white vanilla ice cream, just like on Earth. It reminded Oortcloud of the times he had tried to climb a mountain and try that ice cream stuff, but the other warriors in WindClan tried to convince him that the white stuff was actually snow. Oortcloud knew what snow was—it fell when it was cold—but even in leaf-fall those mountains were coated with the white stuff. It had to be vanilla ice cream, because why else would it stay up there for so long?

He kept looking around the valley and noticed that a white river cut straight through the middle of it. It looked like he was going to get to see if the white surface of the planet was made of milk or cream after all.

"Looks delicious," he mewed, much to the other cats' confusion. He licked his muzzle and put his paws on the panel in front of him to get a closer look. But as soon as his paw hit a certain button, the restraints became loose and he fell down to the glass dome below.

"Oortcloud, that's dangerous!" Asteroidpelt hissed worriedly. He was still strapped securely in his seat, looking down upon his gray, fluffy friend. He looked as if he was considering pushing buttons on his own seat's panel, but decided against it after a second thought. Not while they were so high above the ground.

Oortcloud's gaze still rested on the river. "I want to get down there. It looks… scrumptious."

"Mousebrain," Cometfur growled, "where does it look like we're going? We'll get there eventually, but for now we need to make sure we survive the landing."

Moondust nodded. "That's right. Our main priority is to survive. We'll figure out what caused this and find out where in the universe we are once we get down there. _Oortcloud_!"

Oortcloud stopped licking the glass. "What?"

"That's unsanitary!"

Oortcloud groaned, ears laid flat in annoyance. "But I'm imagining how good the white river tastes."

"We should try to wake up Mr. Jingles," Starscreech said.

"Good idea," Asteroidpelt replied. "But how can we do that? He seemed kind of sick the last time we heard him."

Moondust frantically strained against the straps, like she was trying to facepaw but couldn't get her paw to her face. "Are we the only ones who actually read the ship's manual?"

Everyone else in the room slowly nodded.

"Uh," Asteroidpelt said, "I read like one chapter."

Moondust sighed. "There should be some kind of switch that restarts the ship's AI somewhere on the table that projects the Star Map. One of us will have to climb up there and find it."

Oortcloud's tail shot into the air. "Pick me! I wanna do it!"

Moondust didn't look like Oortcloud was her first choice. "Eh, you're already out of your seat, so why not? Just find a way up to it and then tell us if you see a switch."

Oortcloud sprang up and latched onto Moondust's seat, where he quickly climbed over her. From there, leapt to his seat. It didn't take an Oortcloud to figure out that it would be easiest to jump from Asteroidpelt's seat, since it was in the middle of the room and raised so that he could get a good angle to jump to the Star Map. He leapt to Asteroidpelt's seat in a quick bound.

"What's up?" Oortcoud mewed.

Asteroidpelt didn't say anything.

"We are!" Oortcloud chimed. "Get it? Because we're not only suspended about two fox-lengths above the glass, but we're also floating thousands of fox-lengths above—"

"I understand," Asteroidpelt interrupted. "Please, just try to find that switch."

Oortcloud turned his attention back to the mission at hand. "Alrighty then," he said before leaping up to the Star Map. He clung on to the table with extended claws, and slowly climbed to the upper side of it, where he could sit and closely examine the thing. "Okay, I'm on this ledge now! What am I looking for?"

Moondust called back, "a switch of some sort! It should have a label. Read it to us!"

"Oh, this sounds like the right one!" Oortcloud yowled as he flipped a switch on the Star Map. Suddenly, the door above them—the one that lead to their private quarters—shook.

"Everyone, duck!" Moondust hissed just as the door slid open, allowing all the heavy exercise equipment to fall out.

Oortcloud pressed himself against the wall, trying his hardest to make himself a small target for the equipment. He winced as a dumbbell came spiraling down and barely hit the ledge he stood on. He hoped with all his might that none of it would hit his friends. Asteroidpelt seemed especially vulnerable, being in almost the direct path of the equipment.

He heard a loud crash, followed by the sound of glass breaking. Peeking down at the glass dome, he saw that it didn't exist anymore. It had been almost completely destroyed by the treadmill that had collided against it. All the equipment fell toward the planet's surface at terminal velocity.

"Great StarClan," Asteroidpelt mewed, who was miraculously still alive. "I can't believe we survived that, or the breaching of the hull. The air outside must be—" He only just then seemed to notice that he was suspended directly above the hole where the hull had shattered. If he were to accidentally unlock his restraints as Oortcloud had done, he'd fall right out of the ship.

"Oortcloud!" Moondust said. "Get Mr. Jingles back online, now!"

Oortcloud nervously looked back to the row of switches at his paws. There were three. The switch on the right was the one that had opened the door. The one in the middle said, "Emergency AI Reset." The one on the left said, "Emergency Seat Restraint Unlock."

But there was something else. Written in crayon was the short message:

"_I mey hav swappd the thre labls 4 thes swetches. Or nut, hoo nose?_

_-luv Fierster"_

"Oh, great," Oortcloud said. "Moondust! Not sure which label belongs to which switch!"

"Just press all of—" Moondust cut herself off, as if she were remembering the instruction manual informing her of an Emergency Seat Restraint Unlock. "On second thought, use eenie meeny miny mo. It never fails!"

Oortcloud nodded and looked back to the switches. With every word of the song, he alternated between pointing to the middle switch and pointing to the left switch. "Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a Nippy by the toe, if he hollers let him go. Moondust said to pick the best one so you… are… not… _it!_" His paw rested on the left one that said, Emergency Seat Restraint Unlock.

"I had a feeling it wasn't that one, so it's a good thing I said, 'not!' " Oortcloud said, even though leaving out the word "not" would have had no effect on the final outcome, since he was only deciding between two things. He leaned forward and flipped the middle switch with his nose.

Apparently Firestar actually hadn't switched up any of the labels, because the switch did exactly what it said it would do. The computers and monitors around the room blinked off for a split-second, and then whirred back to life.

Mr. Jingles yawned quite audibly. "What in the universe happened?"

No cat answered him. Instead they all waited for him to realize their predicament.

"Whoa," the AI said, "our elevation relative to this planet has decreased quite a bit since I was last conscious!"

"No kidding," Asteroidpelt said, staring down at the ground below him. Aside from subtle maw movements, his body didn't budge as he spoke. He looked almost sickly. "Can you get us safely down to the ground, please?"

He was wise to add the word, 'safely,' as they had learned before that Mr. Jingles did not often prioritize the safety of his passengers.

"Of course," Mr. Jingles said. "I'll just use RCS thrusters to level out the ship. Then we can land safely."

Because the glass dome was shattered, the cats were able to hear the thrusters outside tilting the nose of their ship up. Eventually, the landscape was out of view, as the ship transitioned to its regular horizontal position. They saw fluffy clouds outside their window.

Since the room had shifted sideways, Oortcloud was laying on the floor next to the Star Map. "Aw," he whined, "I liked when everything was different."

"In a situation like this," Cometfur said, "I like normal way better. I was starting to feel dizzy with the ship hanging like that."

"This is all very disorientating," Moondust said. "But we need to keep our heads together and find out what caused this."

Asteroidpelt pressed the button to undo his restraints. "I think we should be more worried about the fact that we're about to disembark on a planet we know nothing about. I guess the atmosphere is alright if we've survived this long with a broken window, but there could be dangerous stuff on the planet's surface."

Cometfur, Moondust, and Starscreech undid their restraints as well.

Moondust looked thoughtful. "There could be vicious, cat-eating plants down there."

"Or," Cometfur continued, "a badger seven times our size!"

"Or maybe quicksand," Starscreech said. "That would be horrible."

"Any of those things would be horrible," Asteroidpelt meowed. "When we get down there, we might want to lock ourselves in the hallway until we know that what we're dealing with is—_Oortcloud!"_

Oortcloud looked back at him. "What?"

"_Very _carefully… step away from the edge."

Oortcloud looked down through the glass, seeing the trees still a hundred or so fox-lengths below them. "But this part of the glass is okay. See?" He hopped up and down on the still-intact piece of glass to prove his point.

The cats staring at him winced, as if imagining the glass breaking and Oortcloud falling through.

"Can you please just not step on the glass right now?" Asteroidpelt asked. "It's kind of worrisome for us."

Oortcloud hesitated, but did as he was asked. He didn't want to worry his friends, but they shouldn't worry about him all the time to begin with. It's like they didn't want him to have _any _fun.

He casually stood on the solid floor of the ship, looking through the portion that was made of glass. They were really close to the ground —maybe just fifty fox-lengths.

"Mr. Jingles," Asteroidpelt said, "you wouldn't happen to know when we split up from Raj, would you?"

"I'm afraid not," Mr. Jingles said. "Like I said before, I was somehow put into sleep-mode."

"That's fantastic," Moondust said with a hint of sarcasm. "He could be halfway across the galaxy by now."

"How far did we travel in the first place?" Oortcloud said. "Nobody mentioned how far we'd journeyed from Earth."

The cats shrugged.

"We don't know," Cometfur said. "It's been said before and I'll say it again. We're as clueless to space travel as you are to self-control."

"Who has ever said that?" Oortcloud asked.

"We've all thought it," Cometfur meowed.

"Brace for landing," Mr. Jingles said.

The cats tensed, and shortly heard the deep _thud _that was the ship hitting dirt and grass. The impact was actually quite soft, which everyone aboard the ship was grateful for.

"I must point out," Starscreech meowed, "that we're all insanely lucky to be alive. I honestly can't believe that the air outside is so coincidentally breathable."

Asteroidpelt nodded. "We should all be thankful for that. It seems that StarClan themselves may have guided us here, although I do have another theory."

"And what's that?" Moondust asked.

"That weird message from before." Asteroidpelt's tail beat across the floor in thought. "It said something about an 'Oasis Culprit.' This place could be half of that message. But who could be the culprit?"

"I'd say Scorpiustail," Cometfur said. "He stole our NYAN, so he's the culprit of that."

"You're right," Moondust meowed. "But we don't know how a plan that was put into action by him would result in us finding a suitable planet. We thought he wanted us dead… or Asteroidpelt, anyway. It just doesn't make sense."

"Hey guys!" Oortcloud meowed from across the room. "This looks amazing!"

Oortcloud had already opened the airlock, and the light from outside poured through the doorway. The others gasped.

"Wait for us!" Cometfur hissed, bowling Moondust over as she passed her.

The other cats ran after her until they were all finally bunched up in the airlock. They just stood there with their eyes wide, ears perked, and tails swishing side to side as they saw the new world up close for the first time.

Their senses were flooded with stimuli from the planet. The sound of running water left them parched, the chirps of alien insects and birds peaked their curiosity, and above all else the air was clean. Better than Earth's air. Better than any air they'd ever breathed. It blew through the purple foliage, making that familiar and refreshing rustling sound as the planet seemed to breath.

Oortcloud and Cometfur were the first to run out. They ran around in a meadow, stretching their legs and being happily free of their confining ship. It was great, and the sights were breathtaking. After their brisk run, Cometfur went to drink from a nearby white-river.

Oortcloud wanted to join her, but a nearby clanking sound interested him just a bit more. It was coming from somewhere near the ship, and it couldn't have been the other cats since they still hadn't left the airlock. He had plenty of time to try the white water. The source of that sound might not be around forever.

Asteroidpelt stepped out. "Amazing," he said.

Moondust ran down the walkway after him, and Starscreech decided to follow.

"Ugh, nature," the bitter tom addressed.

Oortcloud slowly walked along the outside of the Space CLAN. The clanking sound got louder. Then he stepped around a corner and saw the source.

A green, checkered rabbit wearing glasses stood by their ship, experimentally poking it with a wooden spear. "Intriguing," the native said.

Oortcloud's heart pounded twice as hard as he gasped. "A bunny!" he shrieked. He tackled the poor creature and nuzzled it thoroughly. "I'm gonna call you Checkers!"

The rabbit struggled to escape and frantically tried sucking in air that Oortcloud was squeezing out of it. "Let go of me, you... you villain!" It popped free and took in a massive breath of air. It then reached for its spear, but a worried look crept onto its face.

Oortcloud sat on his haunches, holding the rabbit's glasses between his teeth. They had black rims and green lenses. "You must have not eaten enough carrots!"

The rabbit abandoned its spear. "Give those back!" it said. "Those aren't for sight!"

Oortcloud noticed that the rabbit had large, bright, cartoon-like eyes. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "You're a girl bunny!"

The rabbit grabbed the glasses from Oortcloud's maw and hurriedly put them back on. "Am not," it said. "Everyone says that after seeing my eyes. That's why I wear these stupid things!"

"Oh, sorry," Oortcloud said. He inspected the rabbit further by inhaling its scent. "You smell funny. Kind of like my friend Cometfur after she spilled a chocolate drink on herself."

The rabbit looked surprised. "You have friends? It's a wonder, with your greeting being so annoying."

"I don't greet everyone like that," Oortcloud explained. "I was just so surprised and happy to see a bunny for the first time in like, a moon! How about we start over, and greet each other your way?"

"It would help to know what a bunny is," the rabbit said. "But, it doesn't matter. You don't look like the type that would provide a clear explanation anyway." He held out his paw. "You actually guessed part of my name already. Checkers Green."

Oortcloud purred. "I knew calling you by your pelt pattern would be right!" With a grin, he extended his paw and shook Checkers'. "My name's Oortcloud!"

"Whatever," Checkers said. He turned his attention to the damaged ship next to them. "If you're even intelligent enough to answer, what is this thing?"

"That's our starship! Look, I'll explain why we're here later. I know this must be really strange and awesome to you, but for now let me just introduce you to my friends!" Oortcloud gestured for Checkers to follow as he made his way back to the entrance of the ship.

Checkers started to follow, but then stopped. He wore a devious look as he looked to the nearby tree line and shouted, "SCOOT-A-LOOT-FRUIT!"

Oortcloud craned his head back to see Checkers. "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing!" Checkers said quickly. "That was just my species' signature call. We have the urge to do it every so often. If you think that that was a signal for my tribe to come and investigate, you'd be wrong!"

Oortcloud wore a perplexed look. He shook it off. "Okay!" he said, and continued moving forward. Once his friends were in sight, he called:

"Guys, meet my new friend, Checkers!"

Checkers slowly emerged from around the side of the ship.

Moondust gasped. "A rabbit? With checkered green fur? That's awesome!"

To everyone's surprise, Starscreech jumped forward and appreciatively licked Checkers' forehead. "Pleasure to meet you, Checkers! You and Oortcloud are such good friends, he should just entirely move in with you! You two'll have a great time together!"

Asteroidpelt gave Starscreech a disapproving shake of his head. He stepped forward to greet the native. "Hi, um, Checkers. Sorry if we disturbed you with our ship; we didn't mean to come here. Given the circumstances this might be a rude question, but would you mind telling us where we are?"

Checkers' whiskers twitched in response. "I wouldn't expect such a technologically advanced species such as you to be as naïve as you seem. You're on my planet, Mill K. Shaek."

Oortcloud looked displeased. "Why did your kind choose such a complicated name for the planet? If you want, I can help you come up with a better one!"

"We usually just call it Mill," Checkers said. "No need for you to—"

"I've got it!" Oortcloud meowed. "We'll call it, _Catworld II_!"

Cometfur joined their small group, licking traces of the creamy river off her muzzle. "Don't you think it's unreasonable to come onto someone else's land and claim it as your own?" The other three cats nodded in agreement.

Oortcloud hesitated. It seemed that his five friends opposed his idea, and he did not like that.

"Mill," Checkers said, "was a brilliant sky-studier from my tribe. We're not going to rename it just because some acquaintance of mine suggested it."

"And that's perfectly fine," Asteroidpelt cut in. "We didn't come here to lay claim to your territory, but it would be nice if we could stay somewhere nearby for a while. If it's alright with you, that is. But of course, we wouldn't want to stray too far from our ship."

"But I thought we were Mappers!" Oortcloud said, throwing a paw up in defiance. "What are we if we don't _map _stuff? We need to live up to our name!"

The rest of the group stared at him blankly.

Finally, Asteroidpelt nudged Starscreech. "Can you take over for a moment?"

Starscreech nodded, and continued to convince Checkers to show them around, or better yet, find them a place to stay. Meanwhile, Asteroidpelt told Oortcloud to follow him to the edge of the clearing, where they sat.

Asteroidpelt let out a sigh, as if he was wondering where to begin. "Listen, Oortcloud, we need to show this rabbit some respect. We're trespassing on his land, after all. And we can still be called Mappers as long as we're mapping something. I'm sure this place has a lot of uncharted territory."

Oortcloud did not get any of that. He sat there staring intently, but not meeting Asteroidpelt's gaze. Instead, he stared over the other tom's shoulder at the leafy bush behind him. It seemed to sway back and forth every now and then. But it was unnatural swaying, not caused by the wind.

"So keep in mind that we're here by accident. We don't want any trouble. We just want a place to stay while we figure out how to fix our ship."

Oortcloud saw about a dozen multicolored bunnies silently file out of the bush. "Um, Asteroidpelt?" he said. "Checkers' friends are here."

Asteroidpelt did a quick one-eighty, but he was instantly pinned to the ground by a few of the surprisingly strong rabbits. "Stop, we come in p—" he wailed, but was cut short as a wad of purple grass was shoved into his muzzle.

"Make sure to tie his legs," Oortcloud said helpfully.

The largest rabbit, a plain orange one, hopped over to him. "Whoeth are youeth?" it said.

"Uh," Oortcloud meowed, wondering how to respond to the strange dialect. "I'm Oortcloudeth!"

"Intriguingeth." The orange rabbit hopped onto Asteroidpelt. "A cloudy name for one with a cloudy brain. What is your kind's purpose on this land?"

Oortcloud blinked. Then he took a deep breath. "We're here to take over this planet and feast on your brethren's yummy meat!"

The orange rabbit did not respond for a few seconds. Asteroidpelt wriggled beneath him, shaking his head at Oortcloud almost furiously. Finally, the orange one nodded. "Very well, but I did not know that my brothers had any meat."

"Y'know what?" Oortcloud said. "I was just playing around when I said that, but after thinking about it for a little while, it actually seems like a good idea! I haven't had meat since the last bunny I murdered back on Earth."

The rabbits fell completely silent and merely stared at Oortcloud's maw, which was gaping as he tasted the rabbits' scents.

"Tie him up, quick!" the orange rabbit said, and they were suddenly all over Oortcloud.

"Come on!" Oortcloud hissed as he was being hog-tied. "I just got out of restraints in our ship! I need to run free!"

The orange rabbit order his minions to carry him back to their camp. "Carnivorous Wilds like you cannot be allowed to run free."

Asteroidpelt finally spat out the purple grass. "Forget what Oortcloud said! We're peaceful! He doesn't know what he's talking about!"

"I do," Oortcloud said.

"Take them to the Chief!" the orange one called. "He shall decide their fate!"

Oortcloud giggled maniacally as he was dragged along the purple grass. He noticed the other three Mappers tied up and being carried, as well as his pal, Checkers, hopping along and grinning victoriously.

* * *

Teeth chittering and foot stomps sounded a few fox-lengths ahead. Oortcloud was carried through a small, leafy tunnel along with his Clanmates, where they were dropped on the edge of a clearing. It was surprisingly similar to a Clan camp.

He saw different dens built all around, a few holes dug into a nearby hill, and even a small pool of white that must have trailed off from the white river.

"Chief Blue!" the orange rabbit addressed. "These are the trespassers our patrol warned of."

The camp's colorful rabbits instantly gathered around the camp, blocking any exit while awaiting word from their chief.

Oortcloud had trouble resisting the urge to run off and play with some of the falling leaves. He fidgeted and crunched the dead leaves under his paws.

Moondust batted at his tail and gave him a look that said to stop.

_Fine, _he thought, forcing his muscles still.

The one known as Chief Blue finally appeared from a den built into the hillside, which slightly overlooked the rest of the camp. He was, as you may have guessed, blue. He had no particular pattern, but was made unique by multicolored feathers carefully placed in his short fur.

Oortcloud thought that those feathers might represent something. There was seven; each a different color of the rainbow. The tomcat was more curious as to what creatures those feathers came from rather than what they could have meant. He sat idly and impatiently, still aware of Moondust's constant watch.

"These are them?" Chief Blue said in the typical squeaky rabbit voice known amongst warriors.

"Yes," the Orange one said. "We caught them next to some giant thing on the ground. It almost fell right on the border."

"Border?" Cometfur said. "You guys have rivals too?"

Moondust jerked her glare from Oortcloud to her littermate. "Shush!"

Parts of the camp seemed uneasy at the cats' sudden vocality. The orange rabbit even looked as though he was preparing to carry out a harsh order.

"Yes," Chief Blue replied. "A rivalry. Although I always liked using the word 'feud.' " He noticed the camp's nerves. "At ease, everyone! We'll let these creatures explain themselves before we act on caution. Now tell me, Solid Orange, what happened."

The camp grew more comfortable. The cats weren't getting as many weird looks, and Solid Orange finally rested his paws.

"Well…" he said. "Most of them appeared kind of peaceful. Except the gray one; he said he wanted to eat us!"

Oortcloud showed a face of no regret.

With eyes like a satellite, Chief Blue recognized the leader. "You in the middle, tail held higher than the rest. You're the leader, right?"

Asteroidpelt slowly nodded.

Chief Blue continued, "tell us who you are and why you're here."

Asteroidpelt took a shaky step forward. "We—we are the crew of Space CLAN. We were sent by our kind to find a new home. Our ship crashed nearby, and all we want right now is a place to stay while we get it fixed."

Chief Blue hesitated. A few moments passed, and he dipped his head. "Very well. Release them!"

The camp collectively gasped.

"You're letting them go?" Solid Orange said. "But the gray one threatened to eat us!"

Cometfur, Moondust, and Starscreech glared at Oortcloud.

Chief Blue hopped forward onto more level ground. "I sense that Asteroidpelt is an honest cat. We'll keep the weird one under close watch, but also expect his friends to do the same."

"We will!" Asteroidpelt called out.

"But to be fair," Cometfur cut in, "we really are carnivores. It would be nice if we could hunt prey in this territory. Can we get someone to show us the borders?"

"Of course," Chief Blue said. With a lighthearted voice he said, "so long as it doesn't communicate with us, it's okay to eat. Right?"

The cats stared, unsettled by the morbid comment. They had never thought about how unfair their diet was to lower organisms.

"Don't take that too seriously," the leader continued. "We understand that there are creatures who must eat a certain way to survive."

"So long as it's not us!" Solid Orange said.

Chief Blue looked to the only rabbit in the crowd that wore glasses. "Checkers Green. Tomorrow you will show these newcomers where they can tread and where they cannot."

Checkers didn't seem happy that he would be around Oortcloud during the tour, although he did seem pleased with the task. "Alright, Chief. Do you want me to show them where they can sleep?"

Chief Blue nodded. Then he raised his voice. "Tribe of Numa!"

The various colorful tribe members listened obediently.

_I wish cats of WindClan would behave like this, _Oortcloud thought.

"These are our guests!" Chief Blue said. "As of right now, you will treat them with respect, as if they are one of us!"

The rabbits chittered in response, sounding respectful and acknowledged. Then they went back to happily fulfilling duties around their camp.

"Come with me," Checkers said, hopping off to one of the larger dens next to the pool of white. "This is where you'll stay."

Starscreech was the first to duck past the low entrance. "Hooray for sleep," he meowed monotonously yet sincerely.

Moondust was second. "This is really well built!" she complimented.

Cometfur was third. She said nothing, but you could instead hear the sound of her pouncing into one of the nests and yawning.

"Thank you," Asteroidpelt purred.

Checkers dipped his head. "You're welcome. Just be sure to keep an eye on the weird one."

Oortcloud stared at him from beside Asteroidpelt. "I'm right here!"

"Good thing, too," Asteroidpelt meowed. "You can't be running off, alright? You have to stay where we can see you."

Oortcloud nodded with a sigh as he ducked past the den's entrance. But what Asteroidpelt and Checkers did not see was one very devious face looking to get into trouble.

Asteroidpelt dipped his head one last time in thanks, and then followed his friends into the den.

**-Epilogue-**

Seeing as his Clanmates had drifted asleep, Asteroidpelt crept out of the den, his paw-steps muffled by the sound of snoring from Oortcloud.

Stepping out into the camp commons, his pelt instantly lit up bright yellow. Looking overhead and past the leafy canopy shielding the camp, he saw what looked to be the sun, only less powerful.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Asteroidpelt nearly jumped out of his fur.

It was Chief Blue, sitting in the middle of the camp. "You must think I'm strange," he said, "staying up to admire the moonlight."

"No," Asteroidpelt said. "I don't think that. I used to wake up early just to watch the sunrise." He glanced at Chief Blue. "I thought that that was your planet's sun when I first saw it. It's so different from our moon."

"We have seven of them," Chief Blue said. "They're all made up of different color dirt; our sun's white light makes their colors shine when the sky is dark. They also have very unpredictable orbits. Almost every night is different."

"Wow," Asteroidpelt meowed admirably. "I think I'll love it here. And I had no idea your kind knew so much about space and physics. 'Cause our kind sure didn't until a few moons ago."

"Actually, we did not learn this on our own. Our enemies, the Caramel Tribe, were observant enough to learn how our planet works. But a few revolutions ago they left us, which is why we have so many vacant dens. The night they rebelled—when we were led by my predecessor— they struck on a night where all seven moons were in the sky. That night was as bright as day, but darkened by bloodshed."

Asteroidpelt was silent. He wanted to ask about the Caramel Tribe and why they rebelled in the first place, but decided against it. The Numa Tribe was too kind and accepting for him to prod for information right then. It might bring up the memories of the tribe's dark history, which it seemingly had. He knew that he liked Chief Blue, and he figured that Blue must've lightened the place up. It seemed happy; Asteroidpelt would never have guessed that these rabbits were at war if he wasn't told so.

"Chief Blue, why do you not just move your tribe somewhere else?"

"We are confined to this valley," the other leader said. "We've sent members of the tribe to scout the nearby mountains, but they never returned. This is our safe haven."

"After we repair our ship," Asteroidpelt meowed, "we might be able to fly somewhere else. Would you prefer we do that?"

"No." Chief Blue lowered his gaze from the yellow moon. "My tribe is fine with sharing the valley with peaceful creatures. As for the conflict with the Caramel Tribe, I say that there will be conflict no matter where you go, and this conflict is no worse than any other conflict. Perhaps it will be settled in time, but for now we can only hope for the success of our kinds coexisting."

"Wisely put," Asteroidpelt said. "Thank you for letting us stay here."

He silently vowed to settle the Numa-Caramel war no matter what. If his clan was going to live there, he wanted no hostility. He also remembered that his own kind was as hostile as ever. Even if he did settle these Tribes' conflict, he would need to settle some disputes around the lake as well. But for now, he had his eyeful of Mill's night sky. He said goodnight to Chief Blue and padded back to his den, of which he slept on the thought that he would cross that thunderpath when he came to it. Right now he must only focus on the Tribes and the Mappers.


	3. E202: Need for Feed: Most Hunted

**A/N: Thank you all for the reviews. It means a lot. **I wish I could express my gratitude by not taking over two months to update, but I ran into a few problems while writing this one. A surprising amount of dialogue was cut in the editing process. I'm usually trying to salvage as much as I can, yet this time I noticed "talk scenes" were dragging on quite too much. What this means for you is that the plot is hopefully more focused and to-the-point.

**Guess what day it is? **Space CLAN day! Today marks the anniversary of Season One's beginning _and _ending. In the past week I knew that I just had to finish this episode in time for the 10th, and I finally finished it right on time. No, really; I finished this episode an hour before posting it. Great timing as always? :P

Like all SC episodes, this one has some flaws. I don't want to ruin anything for you now, but I really wish I could talk about past episodes somehow. I've had the idea to post videos to Youtube where I sort of review my own story and recognize my mistakes or where I think the story has shined. Maybe share some tips I've picked up along the way as well. Would anyone be interested in seeing stuff like that sometime in the future?

Enjoy Episode 2!

* * *

Space CLAN Season 2

E202 — Need for Feed: Most Hunted

* * *

Leaves fell steadily, signaling the beginning of leaf bare. Five cats crunched the grounded ones as they treaded along.

"We need to do something," Starscreech said, "to prove our worth to these rabbits."

Moondust pricked her ears. "Like what?"

"Like, we show them some of our combat skills. Their tribe could use us."

Asteroidpelt sighed as he slipped past a tree. Tiny bits of purple bark clung to his pelt. "How about we don't act violent to _anybody _here? I don't want to start any conflict, or end some in the wrong way."

Cometfur stepped up her pace to walk beside the trio. "What's fun that doesn't involve violence?" She tapped Moondust with her tail and gave her a look that said she was joking.

Moondust rolled her eyes, but still purred.

"I propose we have a hunting contest," Asteroidpelt offered. "It'd be a great way to get back in shape and catch our next few meals at the same time."

Cometfur, Starscreech, and Moondust nodded.

"We like that idea," the Medicine Cat said. "Although, isn't that extremely violent and brutal to prey?"

"Best not to think about it that way." Asteroidpelt replied. "How about we just split up and meet back around sun-high?"

The cats looked up. There were thin, feather-like clouds overhead. They saw the planet's white-hot sun through the canopy and estimated how much time they might have. Assuming, that was, that the planet rotated at a speed similar to Earth. A faster rotation would mean less time, and that seemed very likely after how fast the sun had set on the last evening.

"I'll go with Oortcloud," Cometfur meowed.

The gray tom snapped out of a daze and nodded. "Yeah, I want to go with her. She's fun."

Asteroidpelt tipped his head. He had already forgotten that Oortcloud must be watched at all times, and Cometfur had luckily not let that slip by. "Everyone set out when you feel like it. Winner gets… bragging rights for a moon?"

"Sounds good to me," Starscreech said. "But we'll have to figure out which moon later."

Then they split up. Starscreech was on his own; Cometfur and Oortcloud were in a group; and Asteroidpelt and Moondust were in another.

Asteroidpelt guessed that Moondust didn't know much about hunting, and only followed him because she was closer to him than she was Starscreech. Careful-but-still-poorly-placed paws cracked twigs and crunched leaves behind him.

"How are you doing that?" Moondust said.

"What?"

"Walking so silently." Moondust experimentally pushed a forepaw against the ground. "We could swear we're stepping lighter than you, but we still make sound."

"Watch for leaves," Asteroidpelt said. "And twigs. That's really all there is to it."

They took a few more footsteps.

"Much better," he said.

Moondust nodded. "Did you notice a strange yellow light last night? We saw a bit of it shining through the den."

"It was one of Mill's moons. There are seven, and they're all different colors, apparently."

She froze. "Se—seven moons, you say?"

Asteroidpelt looked over his shoulder. He saw the shock on her face and bristled fur. "What's wrong?"

"Oh." She forced her fur flat. "Nothing. Just strange, is all."

"It's beautiful though." Asteroidpelt moved forward.

Moondust followed. Every time Asteroidpelt stopped to take scents, her tail lashed impatiently. "Do you know what the tribe's leader meant yesterday? About the rivalry."

Asteroidpelt shook his head. "Not much. I talked to him last night. Said there was another Tribe called Caramel. I didn't push for any more info."

"That's fine," Moondust said. "You just like to be careful."

There was a snap a few fox-lengths ahead.

Asteroidpelt's paws tingled. He stopped moving and ducked low. It might have been the first prey he had heard in moons. "Get down!"

Moondust crouched. "Sorry. We've just never hunted that much."

"Want to learn?"

"Um, no thanks." She glanced down. "These paws are meant to handle herbs, not mice."

Asteroidpelt lifted his head, making sure they were out of the prey's earshot. "I respect that. You can go back to the tribe if you want. Or to the ship and try to contact Raj."

"We'll try for Raj," Moondust said. "We've had enough rainbow rabbits for one moon."

"You might want to get used to it. This might turn out to be a permanent home, after all."

* * *

"Hold up. I wanna try the white river."

Oortcloud padded to the riverbank and lapped at the smooth liquid. His muzzle gently moved up and down, avoiding the fallen leaves as they sailed past.

"It's good, isn't it?" Cometfur said. She joined him at the river's edge. "Tastes like water, but maybe a bit sweeter. I just hope it's healthy. It's the only drinkable thing I've seen so far."

When she knelt to take her own laps, she anticipated his reply. _Except for the blood of the Numa Tribe! _Oortcloud's voice rang in her head.

_No, _Cometfur thought, _he's done some weird things lately, but he's not crazy enough to say that._

She got no response. Jerking away from the river surface, she turned completely around.

Oortcloud was nowhere in sight.

* * *

Moondust walked through the purple forest, not bothering to keep quiet. Their ship was quite a distance away, so she kept her eyes trained on her paws. It was much better to take the journey one paw step at a time rather than one path at a time.

"We think this is a horrible place! Don't we, Dustmoon?"

_Fo' sho._ _Hon, they must be trippin' if they think we stayin' here!_

Moondust leapt over a fallen log. She landed without grace. Dustmoon, the StarClan cat whom was educated in the field of astrophysics, simply walked through it.

"I just wish there hadn't been that awful prophecy. It seems like Crookedstar only wanted to scare me!"

Dustmoon shook her head. _Nah, he did that to make ya cautious! Just think, if it wasn't fo' yo worry in that battle with Scorpiustail's henchmen, ya coulda been careless and got yaself killed!_

"Maybe you're right." Moondust shook her head. "I just need to pay attention and be careful on the full moons."

_Why don'tcha call up Mothwing while yo at it? She can give ya that messin' cat advice!_

"Mothwing's different. Even for a Medicine Cat. I don't think she even believes in StarClan."

Dustmoon rolled her eyes. _Psh, she needs to wake up! Um, I mean, fall asleep. Then maybe yo's truly can show 'er the terr'tory of StarClan!_

"It's worth a shot, but don't force it on her. That moment's a long ways off anyway. The prophecy could be proven false by then." She took a calm breath. "I'm sure if our leaders are constantly messing with us, it's not unlikely that our ancestors are too."

_Well goo'luck on all that, gurl. I'll be right here with ya, always! But I do need to get back on over t'my dorm. I need to SkypeClan my BF, Lionheart! _

Dustmoon began to fade away as she rose off the ground, assumedly on her journey to StarClan's territory.

Moondust waved her friend off with a flick of her tail. "Have fun. I guess I'll be… SkypeClaning Raj?"

Sometimes Moondust thought that Dustmoon might be a figment of her insanity, but then she remembered that her friend actually interacted with real StarClan cats. It seemed really complicated. She decided to spare herself a headache and leave the matter at rest. She had an assignment to complete.

Ahead, she could already see the white carbon and steel exterior of the Space CLAN. Don't ask how she knew what the twolegs had called the material.

She ran ahead, calling for Mr. Jingles to open the airlock. He obliged quickly.

"We didn't expect you to answer so soon!"

Mr. Jingles coughed again. "Why might that be?"

Moondust ran up the extended ramp. "You're sick. Whatever virus you have must be hurting you."

"As if you know how computers work," the AI said. "While you cats have been having a grand old time, I've been sitting here bored out of my mind. What do you need so suddenly?"

The Medicine Cat headed to her seat before the partially broken glass dome. "We need to know if we can communicate with Raj. We imagine he's fallen asleep in the bridge of his own ship. Could be weeks before he realizes we're not following him anymore."

Mr. Jingles displayed a timer on the monitor next to Moondust. "I've been trying to contact him since we got here. It seems that whatever made us crash into this planet also took control of our weapons and destroyed our coms. We talked to him just fine after the Red Giant blew up, so it couldn't have been that ship's explosion."

"Right," Moondust meowed. "Then how can we fix it?"

Mr. Jingles let out a long sigh. It wasn't the strangest thing Moondust had heard the computer do.

"Are the species here advanced?"

The Tribes reminded Moondust of the Clans. She didn't think their kind was too different from her own. "About as advanced as we were before we learned how to operate and modify twoleg technology."

"Ugh," Mr. Jingles spat. "I'm afraid the only way to make our own communications array is to find someone on this planet who knows its elements. If they're anything like Earth's, you'll have to go mining. That could take forever though."

"Mining?"

"You know." Mr. Jingles brought up a diagram on-screen. It showed an animated cat standing on its rear paws while holding a pickaxe in its forepaws. "Digging for resources. Our old satellite was composed mostly of titanium. It was lightweight but at the same time, very strong."

"Fantastic," Moondust said. "Who's ever heard of cats digging?"

Mr. Jingles was silent. "Do they not dig holes in which they deposit bodily—"

"Shut it!" Moondust hissed. "Fine! We'll go digging, just as soon as we get some info on Millian elements."

"Moondust?" A tiny voice squeaked.

Moondust turned. There were the three little mice standing next to their mouse house's entrance.

"Hi," the she-cat said. "We're surprised the lot of you hasn't set foot outside yet!"

"And leave our air conditioned house?" Lyra said. "No way!"

Moondust figured it was probably very bad to run the AC with the windows all broken.

Aquila nodded. "We're mouse toys. We weren't made to endure harsh environments."

Susan nodded as well. "I agree with them."

"Fine by us," Moondust said. "So… uh, can we get you anything?"

"Oh yes," Aquila squeaked. "With you cats gone all night, nobody's been here to refill the food dishes! We usually live off the scraps, so it'd be nice if you could… you know."

Moondust purred. "Of course! Funny thing is, we seem to have an unlimited supply anyway!"

* * *

Asteroidpelt dropped his entry next to a tree in the clearing. It was three strange creatures; they looked like mice but in assorted colors and of course, flavors.

Starscreech was already there. He sat in the sunlight in the middle of the clearing. He had one green mouse lying next to him, as well as a slightly larger striped creature.

Asteroidpelt noticed three tails trailing from the creature's body. He didn't want to see how strange its face must've looked. "I miss Earth already."

Starscreech kept still, soaking in the sun's rays. "I don't miss the hardly breathable air."

"Something I won't miss is twolegs." Asteroidpelt sat. "And dogs. Those are awful."

Starscreech looked at him. "I like change. Actually, I don't think I could handle life without it. Imagine if the seasons didn't pass, or if the moon didn't wane and wax, or if the sun never traveled."

Asteroidpelt fidgeted. "But this is a bit too much, don't you think? We don't know how harsh the leaf-bare will be, or if this planet even has them, or—"

"_Hi, guys!_"

It was Oortcloud's muffled voice. The tom walked into the clearing, carrying a purple and green rabbit in his maw.

A dead silence overcame Asteroidpelt and Starscreech.

"_Oortcloud!_" Asteroidpelt yowled.

"I caught a big one!" Oortcloud said, dropping it to the ground. It lay completely lifeless on the forest floor. "It must be over three pounds!"

Asteroidpelt stared, eyes wide in shock. "Y—you killed one of them!"

Starscreech grumbled. "I believe he was Onestar's worst choice."

Asteroidpelt began to pace. He kicked up dirt and grass as he imagined the mess of trouble they would soon fall into. "The Tribes. How will they react?" He looked at Oortcloud. "What is your excuse for this?"

Oortcloud tilted his head in deep thought. The group was silent aside from Asteroidpelt's panicky breath.

Finally the gray tom meowed, "Onestar said I had a lot to learn. Maybe this is what he meant!"

"No," Asteroidpelt said. "You've had plenty of time to learn! We told you to stay with us. Even so long ago—on the Red Giant just after the launch—you disobeyed! In the end you made me believe I could trust you. But I guess I can't." He looked around. "Where is Cometfur?"

Oortcloud traced pictures in the dirt. "I'm sorry. Don't blame her for this."

Asteroidpelt drew in a deep breath. "I wasn't. I need to make sure she's okay. It's past sun-high and she's not back yet."

"I wouldn't worry about her," Starscreech said. "She can hold her own in a fight."

"But we know nothing of this place." Asteroidpelt sat down with a huff of defeat. "And what if whatever tribe that rabbit came from finds her? Who knows what they would do?"

"I do!" Oortcloud perked up. "They could sacrifice her to their rabbit ancestors!" His eyes suddenly narrowed, and his haunches fell nearly limp. "We have to find her."

"_You _will do nothing," Asteroidpelt said. "Go find Moondust. She should be talking to Raj in the CLAN. Starscreech and I will set out to find Cometfur."

Oortcloud knelt low. "I just wanted to win the contest. She was slowing me down."

Starscreech looked as though he were finally about to explode with annoyance. He hissed, "…and look where that's gotten you. You might've just caused a war between the Clans and the Tribes."

Oortcloud turned away, fur bristling. He said nothing as he ran off into the surrounding trees.

Asteroidpelt thought he felt a thorn in his chest. Even after Oortcloud had done the worst, he somehow felt sorry for him. "I wish he would take us seriously. Or at least listen for once. I tried talking to him right before we met the Numa Tribe."

Starscreech nodded. "If the Clans get here and he still can't control himself, he'll end up being banished before he can start a war."

"You're right, but I'll never let it come to that. I'll figure something out."

The toms turned to face each other.

"Where do we start?" Starscreech said.

"I have no idea." Asteroidpelt focused his ears, hoping to hear footsteps nearby. "She could be anywhere."

At the edge of his last sentence, he heard a sound. It was far off. He figured that Oortcloud was too depressed to make such noise.

"You hear that?" he asked.

Starscreech tilted his head and opened his maw.

A bush on the opposite side of the clearing seemed to explode as Cometfur burst through in a mess of purple leaves. Her breath came quick and her eyes looked wild. She saw the toms. "Have you seen Oort—"

She noticed the rabbit and staggered. "Oh, StarClan."

Starscreech lowered his head grimly.

Asteroidpelt sighed, finally letting his muscles relax. He calmly stepped forward. "What happened?"

Cometfur caught her breath. "I—I looked down for just a second, that's what! How he does it, I don't know!"

"I wouldn't have believed a story like that until I met Oortcloud."

"What should we do?" Cometfur sat. "We're not even sure what Tribe this rabbit is from."

Starscreech meowed, "We could hide the body and go about our day."

Cometfur added, "Or blame Oortcloud and surrender him to the rabbits?"

Asteroidpelt stared at them.

"Just joking," Cometfur said.

Starscreech shrugged, as if to say he was only partly joking.

"No time for jokes," Asteroidpelt meowed. "As much as I don't like it, we're going to have to come clean. At best, they might appreciate our honesty before maiming us."

"If they decide on that," Cometfur said, "I'm out. No way I'm taking Oortcloud's punishment for him."

Asteroidpelt took another glance at the rabbit. "Come on. Let's go." He turned and left the clearing. "We need to find a Numa Tribe member. We'll be discreet and ask about a rabbit that's different shades of purple and green from Numa, and if they don't have a rabbit of that pattern, we'll have them direct us to Caramel territory."

Cometfur walked beside him, and Starscreech a few paces back.

She gave an uncertain mew. "We're not really telling the truth, are we?"

"I…"

Asteroidpelt remembered Firestar's speech. One of the points his leader had made about him was that he was trustworthy. He couldn't lie.

Doubt suddenly flooded his mind. _He chose you not for your qualities!_

Asteroidpelt jumped a bit, but kept walking. _That voice in his head. It was—_

"You okay?"

He nodded through his daze. "I… can't lie about this."

"Great," Cometfur said. "I can't either, since losing Oortcloud is my fault in the first place."

"Don't take any blame," Asteroidpelt said. "This is all on Oortcloud."

Starscreech quickened until he padded alongside the duo. "There's a Tribe member nearby."

Asteroidpelt tasted the air. He smelled it too. Pointing with his tail, he said, "It's over there."

* * *

_I'm full of mouse-dung ideas._

Oortcloud lumbered across the forest floor, head hanging low. He hardly cared which direction he went, so long as he didn't bump into a tree. Mid-stride he noticed a paw-shaped indent in the dirt between his forepaws.

"StarClan?" Oortcloud said. But when he looked further, the shape disappeared and the dirt rose so subtly that he wasn't sure he had seen a paw in the first place.

"How'd that hunting contest go?"

Oortcloud flipped around. Moondust stood a few tail-lengths away, looking confused. He glanced away and rubbed his face with a forepaw, hoping to hide his depression.

"It went… fine."

"We don't believe that for one second." Moondust came closer. "What happened out there?"

"I did something bad." Oortcloud grimaced. "Problem is, I can't explain why. And the others might suffer from what I did! It's awful."

Moondust was silent. She sat, wondering. "It can't be worse than what we Clan cats have gone through before. What did you do?"

Oortcloud relaxed, but only by a bit. He appreciated that he could trust his Medicine Cat to not overreact. He took a deep breath and told her the story. Moondust sat perfectly still until he finished.

"That's really… something." She shifted her paws, wary of the tom's fretful eyes. "We're surprised that you—never mind. What matters is that you overcome this. You need to settle it yourself. Go find the others before they take your blame."

"Will you come with me?" Oortcloud squeaked.

Moondust looked up. There was an ominous green moon above the fluffy, gray-tinted clouds. "Sorry," she said sincerely. "We need to talk to someone from Numa about the resources on this planet. We were actually on our way there when we bumped into you."

Oortcloud took a step back. "Okay, that's fine. I'll… join you there later."

He turned and ran off without another word. Once he was a good distance from her, he let out a hiss. "Info on resources is more urgent than my problems? And her sister could be in the most danger!"

He skidded to a halt. _Maybe I should have told her that._

* * *

A trio of cats sat in no distinguishable part of the forest, huddled around a certain green, checkered, glasses-wearing rabbit. They had found him near the Numa camp's entrance when they arrived, and promptly asked to speak in private.

Checkers bristled. "You need to go _where?!_"

"Shh!" Cometfur pricked her ears, listening for other Numa Tribe members. "It doesn't concern you. Just tell where they are and we'll leave. Then you can go on with your day."

Checkers glanced at Asteroidpelt and Starscreech, as if checking their seriousness. "Oh, for Moon Tribe's sake. What does this have to do with that purple and green rabbit you asked about?"

Starscreech growled. "She just told you to mind your business. What'll it take to ensure that?"

Checkers took a step back, but bumped into a tree. He winced. "Alright! Just don't let anyone know I told you, if you get in trouble. They're southwest of our camp, across the river, and built into the base of the valley."

"In rabbit holes?" Asteroidpelt asked. "That makes sense. But why isn't your camp underground?"

Checkers shrugged. "We do what we want."

"You've been helpful," Starscreech added. "But make sure you stay that way. Don't tell anyone. We don't want Numa thinking we're not friendly anymore."

"Got it," Checkers said. He glanced to either side cautiously. "Maybe you could return the favor by… y'know, keeping that idiot away from me."

"We're trying," Cometfur snapped. She gestured a follow command with her tail and padded away from the group.

Asteroidpelt gave Checkers a brief farewell and followed, with Starscreech pawsteps behind. They caught up to Cometfur almost instantly. She stopped midstride and looked back at the two.

"What does southwest mean?" she said.

"Not a clue," Asteroidpelt replied.

"We could just go to the other side of the valley," Starscreech offered. "Trace the base of the mountain and we should find it."

"That's a plan." Cometfur continued forward, stepping over colored roots and weaving around thick tree trunks.

"So," she said, "we're really gonna live here?"

"Best we've got." Asteroidpelt ran to meet her pace. "I don't think we'd have found this place if it weren't for Scorpiustail. Whatever he did to the CLAN must have led us here."

"I only wonder why," Cometfur meowed curiously. "He was so messed up."

"Yeah," Asteroidpelt said solemnly. "And evil."

"Hear that?"

The two froze. "What?" Cometfur said.

Starscreech had his ears pricked. "Not the river. There's another sound."

Cometfur focused her hearing. Aside from the river a few fox-lengths away, she listed insects and the wind. Then a new sound hit her. A distant wail.

"Sounds like Oortcloud." Asteroidpelt bat his tail against the ground. "I thought he'd stay out of this."

"He could be in trouble," Starscreech meowed.

"Doesn't sound too urgent." Cometfur listened again. The wail was more of a yowl, as if he was purposefully trying to grab their attention. "I think he's looking for us."

"He better have a great reason," Asteroidpelt hissed. He followed the sound. "We're over here!"

The yowling stopped and Cometfur heard a new sound. Paw steps. Coming fast. She looked close, and saw tufts of gray fur between gaps in the forest and through mildly thick brambles.

"You're alright!" Oortcloud mewed.

Cometfur noticed he was only talking to her. She narrowed her eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Oortcloud stopped in front of them. "Asteroidpelt made us all just as worried about you as he was."

The tabby's pelt bristled. "It would've been the same for any of us! Don't think you're getting away without explaining yourself."

"It's what I came here to do," Oortcloud purred. "I talked to Moondust about this, and I'm willing to explain myself now."

"Better be worth the tension," Starscreech growled.

Cometfur nodded. "We're waiting."

Oortcloud took a deep breath. "It all started when I was just a kit. I lived outside a—"

"_Hey!" _Cometfur interrupted. "We've heard all this before! Get on to the part with the rabbit."

"Oh, right! You see, after I left you, I was wandering along the riverside, wondering what to do, when I saw him. At first I was gonna run out and say hi, but he was acting kinda funny. He was standing on a little rock in the middle of the river. He said, 'I'm whitewater-intolerant, but I'm stubborn so I'll drink it anyway!' Or something like that."

Oortcloud paused, as if checking to see if the others were buying his story. The other cats didn't seem to react to what he said.

"Anyway, the rabbit slurped up a heap of the whitewater and fell backwards onto the rock! I thought he was dead at first. I ran over to help but he wouldn't wake up, even though he was still breathing. So then I brainstormed a plan to win the hunting contest! I'd present him as my entry, then put him back before he wakes up or gets eaten! _Genius, right?_"

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard all season," Cometfur said.

Asteroidpelt let the air hiss out of his lungs. "So you brought a live Tribe member to our hunting contest? _And we left him out there with a possibly serious health condition?_"

Oortcloud nodded. "At least he's not dead, right?"

Cometfur seemed more at ease, now that she realized there wasn't a murder pinned on her.

"I—I don't know what to think," Asteroidpelt stammered. "Is this all another wild dream between acts of that show? If so, I'd rather wake up and endure the puppets."

Starscreech sat still. "You never said why you needed to do this in the first place."

Oortcloud stared at the trio. "Um…"

"Come on," Asteroidpelt said. "You gave us all heart attacks. We need to know."

Oortcloud breathed heavily. When he finally spoke, his voice was so faint they hardly heard it.

"I can't hunt."

Cometfur felt a jolt to her senses. "But… you're a Warrior. We've all been taught to hunt."

The other toms exchanged glances.

"A useless Warrior is what I am," Oortcloud said. "I joined WindClan as an apprentice, but it was never my thing. I was used to dumpster diving around Wal-Mart. That didn't take as much patience."

"You could've said so!" Comefur said. "We went through all that when you could've just done something else during the contest!"

Oortcloud laid his hears back. "I didn't want you to know. Please tell me I'm still cool."

Cometfur hesitated. "Sure," she said half-heartedly. "You're still cool."

"That's a relief," Oortcloud said. He purred and his ears perked back up.

Starscreech yawned. "Maybe we should go check up on that rabbit."

"You're right," Asteroidpelt said. "This whole matter can fixed without the Caramel Tribe ever knowing about the problem."

"_EXTRATERRESTRIALS!_"

Cometfur flinched as dread bit her spine. She turned to the call.

A few fox-lengths away, on the other side of the river stood a light blue and white rabbit. It bore no weapons and looked startled.

Asteroidpelt seemed just as shocked as Cometfur. She noticed him give Oortcloud a look that said not to speak. Oortcloud nodded earnestly.

"Uh, hi there!" Asteroidpelt took a single step toward the river. "We're… peaceful."

The rabbit looked skeptical. Cometfur could only imagine how guilty she and her friends must look.

"What are you called?" it asked. Its voice was feminine.

The cats briefly introduced themselves.

"Odd names," the rabbit said. "I'm Nimbus. But what I really meant earlier was: what type of creature are you?"

"We're cats." Asteroidpelt stood stiffly. "We came to this planet by accident."

Nimbus' nose twitched. "And I take it you met the Numa Tribe?"

The tabby hesitated. "We have. They took us in for the night."

"They seemed friendly to us," Cometfur added.

"Friendly?" Nimbus looked puzzled. "Has something happened? We were never told of a change."

There was a pause.

"What do you mean, change?" Asteroidpelt asked.

"I mean," Nimbus continued, "change from their evil ways."

Cometfur blinked. "Evil? You must be mistaken. Are there by any chance two Numa Tribes around here?"

"No," Nimbus said. She scanned the area around the cats. "You don't seem persuaded by them. Please, join me on this side. It's much safer."

"This doesn't make sense," Asteroidpelt said. "Why should we believe you?"

"It's why we left them in the first place."

Cometfur could see the sincerity in the rabbit's eyes. She nudged Asteroidpelt with a forepaw. "We should hear her reasoning. All of the sudden, this side of the river makes me feel uncomfortable."

"I noticed it too." He glanced at Oortcloud and Starscreech. "Cross carefully."

The cats stared at the river's edge. Cometfur remembered it feeling like water in her maw. Maybe a bit less clingy and slightly thicker. "How deep is it?"

"Here," Nimbus said, "it won't go past your legs. We're sure to patrol the shallow parts in case of invasion."

"They were nice," Oortcloud grumbled. "I don't think they'd do that."

"Looks can be deceiving." Nimbus kept scanning the tree-line across the river.

Asteroidpelt set paw in whitewater. "I didn't realize how thirsty I am until now."

"Save it!" Nimbus called. "Plenty of time for drinking here on the _safe _side!"

Asteroidpelt took another step instead of lapping at the whitewater. "It's not steep."

Cometfur stepped past him. The whitewater grazed her belly as she went carefully across.

"Hey," Oortcloud said as the others followed the she-cat. "At least it blends in with your fur!"

Cometfur looked down. Her white pelt really was almost the same shade of white. "What are you getting at?"

He laughed. "Raj's station."

"I forgot about that," she purred as she stepped out. "Good times. Just don't mention it ever again."

"Think RiverClan will like this?" Starscreech said. He didn't seem happy to get wet.

It was hard for her to imagine her Clan in such a different place. "We'll adapt." She shook her pelt dry. "Now fess up."

Nimbus jumped. "Right! You see, Chief Blue used to be our beloved ruler. But then—"

"What?" Asteroidpelt interrupted. "He told me your Tribe rebelled when you were led by his predecessor."

"Then he lied." Nimbus looked grim. "He was assigned leader of our kind a few moon cycles after I was born. Things got bad not too many seasons after I completed my training."

"Go on," Asteroidpelt said. He turned to take laps at the whitewater, his ears still perked.

"There were disagreements in the Tribe back then. It wasn't much at first, but later got serious and escalated to a whole new level."

Oortcloud groomed his pelt dry. "But why are they bad? We cats disagree all the time. It's not like we're monsters across the border."

Nimbus shuddered. "Don't remind me."

Cometfur's fur stood on-end. "Explain."

"Only if we step away from the border." Nimbus hopped away from the water. "It makes me uncomfortable."

Asteroidpelt looked at Starscreech. "What do you think?"

"We're not clueless like last time," the dark tom said. "I'm not getting tied up by rabbits again. Not much to lose."

"Alright," Asteroidpelt decided. "Lead the way."

The group traveled a few fox-lengths from the river. It was only then that Nimbus decided to continue.

"I think he's sick."

"He looked healthy," Cometfur said.

"Sick in his mind," Nimbus replied.

Cometfur looked at Asteroidpelt. "Maybe he's like Scorpiustail. Two personalities."

"Or he's good at hiding it," Starscreech said.

"Both are things to consider." Asteroidpelt flinched as a droplet of rain hit his head. "Is that clear water? Or do we get the white kind from the sky too?"

"Clear," Nimbus said. "River's white because it flows from the ocean. Ocean's white for reasons our Tribe hasn't cared enough to learn."

"_Who! What's that?"_

Cometfur flipped around at the high, rapid voice.

"Oh, great," Nimbus muttered. "It's Auro."

The entire group let out a breath of ease.

It was the purple and green rabbit, hopping across the field toward them.

A faint whisper said, "Don't mention the happening."

Cometfur turned to see Oortcloud nodding at Asteroidpelt, surprisingly obedient. She was proud of him to admit his wrong-doings and behave himself. Things seemed to be going great.

"What are those things?" Auro said. "They look so weird, but some are even fluffier than we are!" He was before Cometfur and Oortcloud in a single bound. "You two look like clouds! The good kind and the bad kind! Too bad it's the bad kind right now."

Cometfur glanced up. The rabbit was right. The sky had darkened without her noticing, and it looked like the rain might pick up soon. The gray storm clouds were extra-menacing next to the mountain.

Oortcloud looked unpleased. "I don't think I'm comparable to a rain storm. Maybe a tornado."

Starscreech smirked. "And Cometfur truly is like a 'good' cloud. She's so nice and happy all the time. Never negative whatsoever."

Cometfur flicked her tail in his direction to express her annoyance.

"Let's just get to camp," Nimbus said. "Auro, why don't you run ahead and tell the others we have visitors."

"I'll do that!" Auro said determinedly. He ran ahead. "We gotta tidy up the dens! We gotta sweep the floors!"

"He's so annoying," Nimbus groaned. "And allergic to the whitewater somehow. We keep sending him on river patrols alone hoping he'll drink from it, pass out, and get carried off by some avian. So far he's survived drinking it twelve times, even though it knocks him out for a while."

Cometfur laughed. "Maybe today will make thirteen."

Asteroidpelt glared at her, but Nimbus didn't look suspicious.

"I wouldn't doubt it," she said. "It's happened every day since he completed his training. We have to collect rainwater just for him. Camp's just up here."

They traveled up a smooth hill until they reached the steep base of the mountain.

"Through here," Nimbus said. She entered a rabbit hole in the dirt.

Cometfur tested the width with her whiskers. "Might be too small for you, Starscreech." It was a tight fit, but she managed to squeeze through. The den was warm and roomy.

The rabbits gave her weird looks, except for Auro with an odd grin. They waited patiently for the other three cats to file in. Starscreech barely fit.

"So these are the guests."

Cometfur picked out one rabbit in the crowd. Nothing distinguished her but the unique pelt color. Her fur pattern was black and had tiny points of tinted color all over.

The same rabbit continued, "I expected something a little unmillian. Quite a welcome surprise. Please, speak."

Asteroidpelt took a tiny step forward. "I'm Asteroidpelt. That's Starscreech, Cometfur, and Oortcloud."

"I am Büla," she said. "I trust we'll get along fine, so long as you didn't spend too much time with the Numa Tribe."

"Actually," Asteroidpelt said, "we need you to explain what the Numa Tribe has done. Why are they so bad?"

"It's a long story," Büla said. "It doesn't look like this storm will blow over anytime soon. We have plenty of time to share both our pasts while you eat and rest."

"That sounds great." Starscreech stretched his legs and back. "Had quite enough walking."

Some of the rabbits laughed.

Cometfur figured they were relieved that Starscreech said something relatable.

"Food would be nice," she said. "I don't think we've eaten since morning."

The rabbits seemed pleased at her words as well.

"What would ya like?" Auro said. "We got purple grass and we got pink grass."

Cometfur felt her belly grumble in disappointment. She decided to eat what was offered anyway. A little grass wouldn't hurt. She still longed for prey, and wished she had actually caught something in the hunting contest.

She wondered if Asteroidpelt and Starscreech had caught anything. If they had, the prey was getting soaked in Numa territory.

* * *

_Epilogue_

A tail swept across Cometfur's side. "Trying to sleep here," she whispered.

The tail stopped for a few moments. Then it continued brushing her fur. She rolled over.

"Can we talk?" Asteroidpelt meowed.

"About what?"

"Moondust. Aren't you worried about her?"

"I thought you said she was in the CLAN." Cometfur looked around, making sure there were no obvious listeners. "Even if Numa rabbits decide to attack, there's no way they can jump high enough to get through the broken glass. Plus, she has Lyra to protect her."

Asteroidpelt took a shaky breath. "I didn't see her get to the CLAN. I hope to StarClan she made it there alright."

"We'll find her tomorrow. Maybe if we let Numa think we're on their side, we can be neutral among the Tribes. Then we'll figure out how to solve this."

"Great strategy," Asteroidpelt meowed quietly. "Also, I just need to say how happy I am that everything went well today. I thought something horrible might have happened to you after Oortcloud came back alone."

Cometfur wanted to tell him he didn't have to worry. She purred instead. "I appreciate the concern." She remembered how she felt about him at their journey's start. She had defied his commands for so long and even became jealous of his position as leader. "Know that I respect your leadership. You proved yourself aboard the Red Giant, and did well today."

Asteroidpelt bowed his head. "Thank you. That really means the world to me, hearing you say that."

"Really?" Cometfur looked thoughtful. "Well, your worry over my worry over my littermate means the world to me. Good to have a caring leader."

Asteroidpelt purred. "We should rest."

Cometfur yawned, and Asteroidpelt did the same in response. "Sleep well."

She shut her eyes, let herself drift, and slept without a tail bothering her.


	4. E203: The Miner and the Whiner

A/N: **When you write about sentient mouse toys at two in the morning, you start to feel a bit insane.** If I didn't have readers I would have chucked the keyboard out the window long ago. Thanks again.

**On the last chapter I said something about making videos** about this story and you guys seemed to like the idea. The only problem is that I don't have the best speaking skills (or a good mic, or editing software, or upload speed). So, maybe a DeviantArt page would be better choice for now. I'd still like to make a YouTube channel to talk about writing someday, but I just don't see it happening now. I really regret mentioning videos; I should have thought through it more because after trying to record and edit videos for a while I feel like it'll turn out to be another promise I can't keep at the moment.

**Thank you for supporting the idea**, nevertheless. I'm going to see this story to the end, and that could take another few years at this rate. If I stay determined with some of my other hobbies, I may just pick up all that missing stuff I listed before. And I've made a DeviantArt page but quite honestly have no idea how the site works yet. I haven't posted anything, but you will hear about it in an author's note when/if I do.

**Fun Fact:** I forgot about my own Tribe names and ended up calling the Caramels the Numas. Only realized the huge error a few days before posting this chapter.

**Episode 3 is one of the weirdest yet! Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Space CLAN

Season 2 Episode 3

The Miner and the Whiner

* * *

Oortcloud heaved himself up onto the smooth ledge. Then he collapsed.

The three little mice sisters hopped off his back and stepped away from their ride. They stood as tall as they could as they looked over the rocky platform's edge.

"This place is awesome!" Aquila said.

Lyra squeaked, "I love the view."

Susan nodded.

Asteroidpelt was still sucking in air. His heart pounded. "Glad you like it."

"Have a nice long look," Moondust said, resting nearby. "Where we're going, there's no view to gawk at."

The three little mice looked sad. They ran over to the ledge and looked out across the valley, trying to capture as much of the view as possible before it was gone.

Asteroidpelt joined them.

The valley floor sat two or three tree-lengths below them. Down the steep rocky incline was the entrance to the Caramel Tribe's underground den. They had stayed the night and actually gotten along with the tribe members quite well. It turned out that the Caramel Tribe was very accepting and friendly once they learned that no cat meant any harm.

_For now, _Asteroidpelt thought, _we have no enemies. _

That morning, they had crossed the river in search of Moondust. Around sun-high, they found her and the three granddaughter mice wandering the forest. She told them about her findings, all thanks to Mr. Jingles and Checkers, who apparently knew the land's resources like the back of his own forepaw.

Asteroidpelt took a bewildered breath. _This is a small valley for so much conflict._

Starscreech's voice snapped him from his thoughts. "Why's everyone so out of breath? Did no one else take walks back on Earth?"

"Walks, yes," Asteroidpelt replied. "Vertical climbs up mountains, never."

"You toms are such kits," Cometfur said, taking a quick glare at the exhausted Asteroidpelt and Oortcloud. Starscreech stared at her daringly. Her whiskers tilted in a taut smirk. "And don't think you're not being kit-like either! Always pretending you're so tough and untiring."

The dark tom rose, amber eyes gleaming in the sunset's light. "I'm only embracing the trait Blackstar chose me for. What do you do again? Run your maw all day?"

Cometfur bristled. "Ha! At least I actually speak! You act like you've got secrets to hide."

Starscreech's nose wrinkled as he drew his lips back into a snarl.

"Cometfur!" Moondust yowled.

Cometfur's face softened. "Yes?"

Starscreech relaxed, but his glare was still trained on Cometfur.

Moondust gave her a disapproving shake of her head, to which her sister nodded politely.

Asteroidpelt figured she only quieted down for her sister's sake. He was glad he didn't need to intervene.

Moondust looked to the rest of the group. "Everyone ready?"

Oortcloud bounced to his feet. "Wait! What's that?"

"This?" Moondust gave him a look. "We told you on the way up. It's the cave Checkers told us about."

Oortcloud stared at the haunting, dark entrance. "Maybe I didn't hear you over my own pulse." He scowled at the three mouse toys. "Or maybe it was all the squeaking in my ears!"

"Oh well," Moondust said. "Now you know."

"But…" Oortcloud shivered, pulling his eyes from the luring cave. "I'm fine under starlight, but I don't do _that _level of darkness!"

"Your eyes'll adjust," Cometfur said. "No way are you heading back down on your own."

Asteroidpelt inched closer to the cave. "In light of what happened yesterday, I'm still cautious to leave you on your own. I know you had some reasoning, but it was still weird and uncalled for."

Oortcloud nodded. "You've every right to feel that way. I just _really _don't wanna go in that cave!"

"Why not?" Asteroidpelt asked. "It's not that scary."

As if on cue, a harsh wind flew across the mountain. It let out an ominous moan as some of the breeze trailed into the cave.

"Yes it is!" Oortcloud said.

Asteroidpelt sat down, looking to Moondust for advice.

Cometfur flicked him with her tail as if to say, _allow me. _She said, "I never expected this."

Oortcloud didn't respond for a few moments. "Expected what?"

Cometfur grew an evil look. "The most adventure-hungry cat of us all cowers from a little cave!"

Oortcloud gasped. "Not true! I'm…" He looked back at the cave and took a gulp. "I'll go."

She walked toward the cave, letting her tail caress Asteroidpelt's neck as she slipped by.

He sat there mystified. _Will you be my new deputy?_

Starscreech walked past him. He gave a disgusted look, as if to tell him not to be impressed by her.

Asteroidpelt rolled his eyes. Despite his helpful mentality and skills, Starscreech was beginning to seem like… well, a ShadowClan cat.

"You all ready?" Cometfur said, stopping at the light's edge. The group offered a half-hearted confirmation, so she led the trek into darkness.

"Goodbye light," Lyra squeaked. She entered the cave with her head hanging low.

Oortcloud hesitated deeply. Ashpelt could almost make out words plastered on his face. _Safety or reputation?_

"Come on," he said. "It'll be fine. What makes you so afraid anyway?"

"_Afraid?" _Oortcloud snapped. "I'm not scared! I just like using my eyes!"

"Fair enough," Asteroidpelt said. He followed the group.

Inside was dark, but nothing too bad. However, a few fox-lengths deeper it was pitch-black.

A few tail-lengths ahead, Moondust ran to Cometfur's side. "We're looking for a stone."

Cometfur stumbled over a loose rock. "Just any? Seen plenty of those."

"Uh, it's shiny red," Moondust meowed. "That's all Checkers told us."

Asteroidpelt followed slowly with his ears pricked. He meowed ahead: "And this will actually help us with the mission? I feel like I missed something when you demanded we come up here with you."

"Somewhat," Moondust said. "We need it to contact Raj. Otherwise we're stranded."

Starscreech growled in an unsettling way. "How's some rock gonna get Raj on the line?"

"The line?" Oortcloud whimpered.

Moondust ignored him. "Checkers didn't say much. Just there's a rabbit living in this valley that can make the stone useful for fixing our ship."

"You better hope he's right," Starscreech said.

"We all should." Moondust's eyes met Asteroidpelt's. "We don't think he has any reason to lie to us."

Asteroidpelt's fur lay calm with her reassurance.

"Hold up," Cometfur said. The group stopped. "Two tunnels."

Oortcloud let out a strained breath. "That's _two places to ambush us from_!"

"Calm down," Cometfur said. "First you're all quiet, now you're letting the whole mountain know we're here? Are you mouse-brained?"

Moondust sighed. "Checkers said it was in this mountain. In this cave specifically. Nothing about branching paths though. And what are you on about? An ambush?"

"Yes!" Oortcloud said. "I've heard the tales. They'll come for us when we least expect it! It's not long before we—"

Starscreech poked him with a forepaw, causing him to leap a few tail-lengths into the air. He landed as a giant fluff-ball, hairs on-end. "Not funny!"

"I didn't know you were that jumpy," Starscreech said. "I just wanted to shut you up. Your rambling was unsettling the younger ones."

Cometfur hissed at him. "What the Dark Forest makes you so upsetting today?"

Starscreech stared at her. "Oh! You thought I meant you?" He laughed, pointing with his tail to Moondust.

Moondust looked down. Aquila, Lyra, and Susan were huddled around her paws. "Um. You can ride on our back if you want."

Without a second thought the mice toys climbed aboard.

Aquila shivered. "Thanks. The ground is really cold."

"Y—yeah," Lyra said. "Freezing."

Susan tilted her head. "I thought it was lukewarm."

"Doesn't matter," Cometfur said, looking at Starscreech and then to Asteroidpelt. "Let's just find this stone and get out."

Asteroidpelt dipped his head. "Right. I was thinking we could split up to search both tunnels at once."

Moondust squinted as she gazed over the group. "We should split the group by authority. A group led by our leader and another by our deputy."

Asteroidpelt had a similar idea in mind, but decided that Moondust's was better. "Everyone okay with that?"

Cometfur stepped closer to Asteroidpelt. "So long as I'm not with _him._"

Starscreech rolled his eyes. "Fine by me."

"You'll take Moondust," Asteroidpelt said quickly, trying to move past the tense exchange. "We'll take Oortcloud."

"And we'll be taking left." Starscreech looked at the tunnel. "Let's go. I've got a good feeling there's a very important stone waiting for us down there."

Moondust waved the other group off with a flick of her tail as she set out to follow him. The mice toys on her back looked anxious, but at the same time ready for whatever lie ahead.

"For once," Oortcloud said, "I'm unhappy with the cool group."

"I thought Starscreech was the cool one," Asteroidpelt meowed. "You seem to like him."

Oortcloud paused. "I do, but what I really care about is being on the team with muscle. How will we survive in here without intimidation on our side?"

"That'll be me," Cometfur growled. "And if any monsters try to fight us, they'll learn a thing or two before messing with a Space Clan cat!"

Oortcloud beamed. "I forgot you knew so much about fighting. It's good that at least one of us isn't a weakling!"

Asteroidpelt slouched, unpleased with the statement. "Let's go. Tunnel on the right." He headed for the tunnel without another word. Then he realized something. _Cometfur didn't say RiverClan._ _Is that how far we've come? _He took a quick glance at her.

She walked confidently and comfortably. Way back when, she'd have blown a personal-space bubble around herself to keep the other Mappers away. Recently she didn't seem to mind a bit of physical contact.

It almost made Asteroidpelt skip to think he'd bonded so well with his group.

"I'm hungry," cried Oortcloud. "Think there could be a Subway down here? I heard they were underground."

"Ain't got a clue," Cometfur said. "I'm hungry too though."

"Gah," Asteroidpelt hissed, stopping in his tracks. "We forgot about the prey we caught yesterday. It's probably all soggy by now! I should've thought to bury it."

"I thought about that last night," Cometfur said. "That grass was surprisingly filling, but it was no match for a fresh mouse. Or whatever they're called here."

Oortcloud wore a distant stare. "Isn't it a little weird that we think about eating mice all the time, but we're friends with three mice toys? I wonder what they taste like."

* * *

"This is just awful!" Aquila held a small backlit device with her tail. "There's no signal. I can't get the latest tweets from mrgrumpycat4!"

Starscreech's eyes widened. "Um… Who—who's that?"

Moondust hardly stifled a knowledgeable laugh.

Aquila took a deep breath, but Lyra pushed her out of the way and said, "Only the most boring person on the internet! All he does is talk about the crazy things his coworkers do. He doesn't do anything cool himself."

Starscreech was blank. "Really?"

"Nu-uh!" Aquila flipped upward and stood her ground against Lyra. Ahem. She stood her _Moondust's back_ against Lyra.

"Your opinion's stupid! His tweets are great! Sometimes I refresh the page over and over until another pops up!"

Starscreech was overwhelmed, out of it, completely done with the situation. So done in fact, he bumped nose-first into a stalagmite.

"This cave's wet," Moondust said. "Wonder what these conditions could mean when it comes to finding that stone."

Starscreech groaned, scrunching up his throbbing nose. He looked up. Through the darkness he saw an orange stalactite dripping cool water onto the tip of the mineral spire. He beckoned the mouse toys to continue.

Susan said, "I think that cat grump guy is mediocre. But if he stopped going with the flow and _did _something every now and again, I think I'd really like him."

He felt warm inside. What the youngest mouse had to say was perhaps the most meaningful; her words were kind but honest at the same time.

She continued, "Then again, he's just some pretentious guy on the internet so I really don't care."

Then his warmth was gone. "Let's just keep looking for that stone. Moondust, you said something earlier about a rabbit that can make use of it. Is he Numa or Caramel?"

"Neither," she said, leading the group forward. "Checkers spoke as if the rabbit was a loner. Crevice up ahead."

Starscreech squinted. Ahead the tunnel seemed to end, but there was a small gap leading through it. "Do you see the glow too?"

"Sunlight?"

"Could be," Starscreech said. "I feel like we've walked straight through the whole mountain." He tested the crevice's width with his whiskers. It was wide at the bottom but vary narrow at the top, so he had to crouch to get through.

"It's a rock."

Moondust got through a moment later. "But is it _the _rock?"

Starscreech felt something press against his rear paw. "If one of you wants to ride, just ask."

"What?" Lyra said. She and her two sisters stared at him from atop Moondust.

Starscreech stood stiffly. "Then what's…?" He jumped forward and flipped around.

The orange stalactite was rolling after him.

* * *

Yowling and squeaking broke the palpable silence and echoed throughout the mountain.

"StarClan," Asteroidpelt whispered. "What's happening?"

Oortcloud stood with his knees bent, trembling low to the ground. "That's them. They've already found the others."

"Shut up!" Cometfur hissed. "You're creeping me out. What are _they_?"

"The Yee Worms." Oortcloud shuddered. "I've read all about them. In fact…" He assessed the cave around them. "…I wouldn't be surprised if we're standing in the digestive tract of one right now."

"Don't be silly at a time like this." Cometfur shook her head and looked at Asteroidpelt. "What should we do?"

He looked sickly, shaking harder than Oortcloud and leaning against the rock wall for support. "I—I don't know. We have to get down there."

"_What?_" Oortcloud yowled. "Get down there? I don't think you understand the power of Yee Worms. We don't want to be near them."

Asteroidpelt shot Oortcloud a surprisingly stern look. "We're not leaving anyone in this cave!" He stepped backward. "Why'd I even suggest we split up?"

"We were all thinking it," Cometfur meowed reassuringly. She began heading down the tunnel toward the place where they had separated. "Starscreech better know his responsibilities."

Asteroidpelt followed her. "I'd be less worried about how well he does and more worried about their lives. We don't know what's down here."

Cometfur staggered. Asteroidpelt knew reality must've hit her like a bundle of sticks. She broke into a run.

Asteroidpelt glanced back. "Are you a cat or a mouse?"

Oortcloud stood awkwardly. "Mouse."

"Their lives are likely in danger." Asteroidpelt ran after Cometfur.

Oortcloud quickly caught up to him. His fur still stood crazily and he glanced over his shoulder every few moments.

Asteroidpelt knew he was still scared and he respected him for that.

They reached the split in the tunnel.

"You know," Asteroidpelt said between breaths, "it's your duty to protect them."

Oortcloud sighed as they rounded the wall and raced down Starscreech's path. "Bravery really just isn't my thing."

"What happened to you?" Asteroidpelt tilted his head, puzzled. "I remember when we fought Scorpiustail's minions, you were _very _brave."

"That was against things we knew about." Oortcloud dodged a stalagmite. "We learned how to fight them. We learned their weaknesses. These things have _no weaknesses._"

"Whatever those things are, they're just a guess. You don't really know what we'll find down here."

"Maybe a dead end."

"Cometfur?" Asteroidpelt called, sliding to a halt. _Surely she didn't run out._

"There's a gap." Her voice sounded muffled and distant. "You should be able to squeeze through."

Asteroidpelt realized he shouldn't have doubted her. It was hard to see in the lack of light but there was a narrow crevice in the wall. He tested its width with his whiskers. _If Starscreech came through here I'll fit._

The tunnel floor and walls were smooth and damp, helping him to wiggle his way through. Water dripped from cracks in the ceiling, wetting his fur one drop at a time. His heart raced and his lungs burned for air; he hated the unearthly smell of foreign minerals on his tongue but he took sharp breaths anyway. Finally he popped out the other side.

"And then what happened?"

"This… _thing_ rolled outta nowhere and chased them off!"

Asteroidpelt narrowed his eyes. He was in a more expansive room of the cave, no longer just a tunnel. Three tiny shapes rustled in the dark as they told their story to Cometfur. "How did you all get left behind?"

"We got thrown off when Moondust ran away," Lyra said. "The thing chasing them didn't seem to care about us so we just stayed put."

"And where'd they run?" Cometfur said.

The three mouse toys pointed with their string tails toward another tunnel.

"Can I just stay here?"

Asteroidpelt turned around and saw Oortcloud standing halfway through the crevice. "It'll be fine."

Aquila jumped in agreement. "Yeah, _anything'll _spook a cat in this cave!" She looked at Lyra and giggled.

No more than a second later, Oortcloud burst out of the crevice, tense and spastic. "Something bit my hind-paw!"

Aquila and Lyra fell over with laughter. Susan walked out of the crevice with a devious look on her face.

"No time for jokes," Cometfur hissed. "Hop on and we'll go looking for Moondust and Starscreech."

The mice obliged and climbed Cometfur similar to how they'd mounted Moondust.

Asteroidpelt gave her an approving glance and headed for the tunnel he'd been shown.

Oortcloud got to his paws and almost fell over again, standing on weak legs. He grumbled at the mice and followed Asteroidpelt.

The cave was narrower than the last. Asteroidpelt wondered why a cat would choose this route to make their escape. _Must've been some enemy, _he worried, beginning to walk faster.

"Hey Cometfur," Lyra said. "Catch up to Asteroidpelt! I want to jump to him."

"Jump to him?" Cometfur asked but she got no answer. She ran ahead until Asteroidpelt was directly to her right. "Better?"

"Yup!" Lyra leapt to Asteroidpelt's back. "Let's play King of the Hill!"

Aquila immediately jumped after her but was slapped out of the air by Lyra's tail. Aquila hit the ground with an "oof!" She picked herself up and tried again, this time climbing Asteroidpelt directly. She came into Lyra's view and was shoved off. "Help me, Susan!"

Susan sat motionlessly on Cometfur. "I prefer Cometfur's long hair. Much softer."

Lyra looked around, troubled. "Why can't ya grow a longer pelt, Asteroid_pelt?!_" She pulled a tuft of his fur.

Asteroidpelt flinched. "Stop that!" He and Cometfur exchanged a baffled look.

"From now on," Lyra yelled, "I declare this to be peasant territory!" She jumped at Susan.

Susan dodged her tackle with a fluid sidestep and flipped the dazed Lyra overboard. "I, as Queen of Comet Land, order Lyra to be placed under house-arrest in her peasant domain!"

Lyra sat on the cave floor, fuming.

Oortcloud stopped beside her. "I've got a long pelt too! I can be good property, right?"

Suddenly Aquila appeared on top of him. She looked down at Lyra. "Already taken!"

"Ah!" Lyra squeaked in frustration. "This game's dumb. Let's play something else."

Cometfur shook her head. "How about we play _quiet until we're sure everyone's safe._"

Lyra ran ahead and hopped onto Cometfur again. She gave Susan a peaceful but bitter nod and sat. "If we don't play we don't feel safe! What do you think we did all day in space? You idiots were always finding trouble. Just like now."

"I think I hear it ahead," Asteroidpelt said with a tilted head.

"Hear what?" Lyra squeaked.

"The trouble." He took more careful steps.

Cometfur noticed and did the same. "It sounds like… high pitched yelling."

"I don't hear anything," Aquila said.

Oortcloud caught up with Cometfur and Asteroidpelt and walked between them. "It sounds far off."

"Is that light?" Asteroidpelt said. He turned a corner and entered a roomy cave. There was light pouring through the center of the roof like a thin waterfall. Two cats were hunched over in the light, tied with musty vines. Around them there were…

_No way, _Asteroidpelt thought. _Carrots._

"I'm awake, right?" Cometfur whispered.

Somehow they heard her whisper.

In a span of a second, about a dozen tiny faces were fixed on the three cats that had just entered.

_No way, _Asteroidpelt thought again.

A staring contest ensued.

He wasn't sure if his first guess was right. Carrots? It didn't seem right or possible. He kept staring and, sure enough, they were carrots. Bright, orange skin; leafy, green hair; a conical body. It all added up. But _why?_

Asteroidpelt decided to speak since they'd already been discovered. "W—why are they tied up?"

The _carrots _looked among their group until one fell to the ground, rolled toward Asteroidpelt, and then stood back up.

"Why, are these _your _kind?" it said calmly, tilting back and forth with every few words. "I thought they looked a little different."

"Yes," Asteroidpelt said through his teeth. "They are. Who are you?"

"Just a friendly little carrot!" it said happily. "The name's Torrac. Didn't mean no harm by tying any of y'all up! You see, we're uh… enemies of the rabbits in the valley." He fell over and rolled so that it pointed toward the other carrots. "Them rabbits chomped us down to near extinction. We're the last of our kind. Horrible, they are."

The other carrots whimpered.

"Uh… I guess that _is_ horrible." Asteroidpelt glanced at Cometfur and Oortcloud.

Cometfur looked like she was in a daze, hardly registering any of the conversation. Oortcloud simply looked relieved to not have run into anything scary.

Asteroidpelt was surprised he was able to speak clearly despite the insane circumstances. "Look, we really don't want to be down here and we didn't know this cave was occupied. If you untie our friends we'll just leave."

"O'course!" Torrac said with a friendly nod. "Fellas, loosen up those vines and we'll see the guests off!"

The other carrots rolled over to Starscreech and Moondust. Asteroidpelt wasn't sure how they did it, but they managed to untie them with little effort. The vines fell to the cave floor.

"Excellent!" Torrac said. "We got a big one and a mute one!"

"Mute?" Cometfur said.

Moondust stared at her with wide eyes. She shook her head without a word.

"Sure!" Torrac rolled toward Moondust. "The one that doesn't speak! She's a nice one."

"What do you mean?" Oortcloud said, raising his head over Cometfur's shoulder.

Asteroidpelt noticed Starscreech giving Oortcloud a glare.

The gray tom stepped around Cometfur. "Moondust talks a lot! Even to herself sometimes."

"You sure y'know this girl?" the carrot said. "She's quiet, she is."

Moondust's face looked a bit odd to Asteroidpelt. She was careful in every movement and didn't dare let her eyes meet any of the carrots.

"Let's leave," Cometfur pleaded. "We've got stuff to do."

"Wait," Torrac said. "Now just what is goin' on here? You guys seem like yer hidin' somethin' from us! How about—"

Starscreech leaned over Torrac and took a huge bite out of him.

The cave became frozen solid and quieter than the void of space.

Moondust smacked Starscreech's back and he coughed up the leafy top of the creature. Even in death Torrac wore an eerie smile.

The other carrot creatures only just seemed to register what had happened. They let out a shrill scream, dropped to the ground, and rolled after Starscreech.

"Run!" Asteroidpelt yowled. He tried making sure they were all ready to head back through the cave, but Oortcloud was already gone. He had left a trail of airborne dust leading to the cave's exit.

Moondust and Cometfur ran past him.

Asteroidpelt ran after them with Starscreech right on his tail. "What was that about?"

"He was getting suspicious!" Starscreech said.

"He was friendly!" Asteroidpelt hissed.

"Not until he was at a disadvantage." Starscreech ran beside Asteroidpelt. "These things can roll surprisingly fast."

Asteroidpelt took a quick glance behind him and saw the entire clan of carrots following at a disturbingly fast rate, despite the steady incline and unsmooth ground. "Keep going," he said, somewhat directed at his own aching legs.

They reached the crevice and found Cometfur going through. Moondust and Oortcloud were already on the other side.

"Go through after Moondust!" Starscreech said.

Asteroidpelt stopped just behind Cometfur. "You need help though."

"Just hurry!"

Asteroidpelt squirmed through the crevice, ready to come out the other side and pull Starscreech through if any carrots tried yanking him back.

Suddenly the entire mountain shook. It threw Asteroidpelt out of the crevice and while he was pressed against the cave floor he felt his bones shake.

Starscreech squeezed through and took a defensive stance at the crevice. The carrots tried rolling through, but the ground began to crack. Starscreech had to back away from the unstable ground. He stood with his feet planted firmly on the quaking earth.

The ground burst around the carrots and they were swallowed up by some enormous creature. It moved upwards faster than a cat could run, and soon enough they saw its slimy tail slithering upward.

The wall with the crevice was now a vertical crossroads of tunnels with huge girths.

Moondust's jaw went limp in astonishment and a shiny red stone fell out of her mouth. It vibrated on the still disturbed cave floor.

Asteroidpelt padded forward and looked up. The tunnel curved, indicating that the creature must have turned and tunneled back down.

"That's funny," Oortcloud said. "I could've sworn Yee Worms were carnivores."

Cometfur took a deep breath. "Nightmares. That was _nightmares_."

Asteroidpelt glared at Starscreech. "You may have just caused a species' extinction! Why would you do that?"

"I didn't know that would happen," Starscreech said. "But maybe it was for the better. They were planning retaliation. They wanted control of the whole valley!"

Moondust stepped forward and sniffed at the stone. "He's right. They weren't the most peaceful creatures. Before they attacked us, we found this."

Asteroidpelt sighed. He wasn't sure if he was going to forgive Starscreech so easily, but since his Medicine Cat said it was justified he felt a tad better about the situation. "How'd you come across it?"

"It was lying in the cave just past where the crevice was," Moondust said. "Maybe the carrots used it to lure us in."

"Carrots," Cometfur said, pacing back and forth. "You'd think I'd be used to seeing crazy stuff by now."

Moondust meowed, "Let's put this somewhere safe." She picked up the stone with her teeth and headed for the exit.

The rest followed. It was a few moments uphill to their original starting point.

Asteroidpelt stepped out of the cave. He was exhausted, and by the looks of their heaving sides, so were his teammates. "Let's sleep 'til morning." He breathed in the cool air. "We'll figure out how to fix our communications tomorrow."

They made their way down the mountain slowly, careful to not fall or sprain any weak joints. After they reached the valley floor they hid the stone in a bush and headed for the Caramel Tribe's camp.

"You're back!" Auro said, his head protruding from the den's entrance. "Were ya captured by Caramel rabbits? If so, some of the kits in my nest owe me their best blade of grass for a week!"

"We weren't captured by rabbits," Asteroidpelt said.

"Something worse!" Oortcloud added.

"What's worse than a rabbit—I mean—" Auro hopped out of the hole in the ground. "What was it?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Asteroidpelt said. He understood that they could be severely messing with this planet. After all they had possibly caused the extinction of carrots on this world. "We need to speak with Büla."

Auro nodded disappointedly, but ushered them inside. "She's in her den."

Asteroidpelt followed with the others in tow. He stepped out of the narrow entrance and was greeted by the lively home of the Caramels.

The underground camp was small but cozy with a few tunnels trailing toward different dens and secret emergency exits. The first room was like a central hub to the camp where rabbits of all arranged groups gathered to converse and safely share a meal.

The group weaved through the camp and made it to a small tunnel in the back wall.

"She's in here," Auro said.

"Ah, our guests!" Büla lay drowsily in her den, pressed against the cool rock that made up the far wall. "I didn't expect you to be gone so long. Who's this?"

"This is Moondust," Asteroidpelt said. "She's our medicine cat."

Büla nodded a greeting and Moondust did the same.

Asteroidpelt looked at the three young mice on Cometfur's back. "And this is Aquila, Lyra, and Susan."

The Caramel's leader looked at him like he was crazy. Then she continued: "Does anything trouble you so late in the day?"

Auro chuckled. "You mean early in the night."

"Leave," Büla said hastily.

Auro left the den with nothing but a whimper.

Asteroidpelt gestured for Moondust to speak.

Moondust straitened her posture. "We came to ask you about a loner in this valley. We've heard… uh, rumors, about him, and that he might be able to help us fix our ship."

"That might be true," Büla said, standing up and hopping a bit closer to the cats. "It isn't really what I would have suggested. He's a bit of a loon. But if you need him to fix your ship, I do know how to find him. Just follow the river upstream for a while. You'll surely find it."

"Thank you," Asteroidpelt said. "We all really do appreciate your hospitality. It makes our kind look like misbehaving kits in comparison."

Büla's eyes narrowed. "Your kind is not civil? I expected more from species capable of such means of travel." She relaxed. "Oh, I'll be a hypocrite if I judge your kind when mine is at war. Get some sleep before your journey tomorrow."

That night, the five cats slept well. Perhaps a bit _too _well.

~Meanwhile on Twitter~

**mrgrumpycat4**: Ate a sentient carrot today. I do stuff now.

**Aquilamouse99**: that's funny… my friend did that today. Crazy coincidence! :o

**lyrathelyre**: omg y am I still following u ur such a tryhard UUUGHHGHGH

**Susan**: Pics or it didn't happen.

**AlmightyRaj**: u cats have weird diets. :P I had to stop keeping live baby Yee Worms in my fridge but they're luckily ALMOST as tasty dead!

**AlmightyRaj**: oh and I didn't know ur ship had cloaking tech. it's a wonder it still works after the damages!

**mrgrumpycat4**: WE DON'T HAVE CLOAKING! We're stuck on some crazy planet! Transmitting coordinates soon! Bring help!

**AlmightyRaj**: you could just tweet me the coordinates…

**mrgrumpycat4**: Twitter's 140 character limit says otherwise. lol

**AlmightyRaj**: oh yeah well in that case… standing by for the transmission

**lyrathelyre**: wait wat?

**Aquilamouse99**: another coincidence! My friend is stuck on a planet too! And knows AlmightyRaj too! And is a grumpy cat too! u have a twin?


	5. E204pt1: Inkittious

A/N: This one's been in my head for a long time, ever since the midpoint of Season 1. **It's heavily inspired by the Insidious series, so expect many nods to those movies.** (The first two; I haven't seen the third one yet.)

Oh, and this chapter originally had a huge cliffhanger. I decided to save that plot twist for a little bit later, and make this chapter almost a thousand words longer. I hope that makes up for the wait. ;P

I can guarantee there's a moment in this episode you won't understand because it wasn't meant to be understood yet. **Answers will come in part two, which will be posted tomorrow. **

* * *

Space Clan

Season 2 Episode 4 Part 1

Inkittious

* * *

Morning came, dragging peaceful sunshine over the valley. It spilled into the rabbit hole and lit the den, stirring restful bodies like a mother would lick her kits awake.

_Do rabbits even share tongues? _Asteroidpelt thought, staring at a group of them hanging around the entrance. He didn't know much about their culture. He forced himself onto all fours.

Starscreech lied awake, looking comfortable and rested with his paws tucked beneath his body. "First thing we do is hunt."

Asteroidpelt felt a sharp stab to his belly. "You had to remind my stomach."

"Sorry," Starscreech said. "I think it would have remembered soon anyway." He stood, stretched, and poked Oortcloud with a forepaw.

"I'm awake!" Oortcloud hissed. "Just give me a minute." He turned over and within seconds began snoring.

Asteroidpelt chuckled. "Maybe we should let him sleep. Two of us could hunt."

"Alright," Starscreech said. "You and me." He looked at Oortcloud. "He's a spoiled kit."

"He is," Asteroidpelt said. He yawned and headed for Cometfur, who was curled into a tight ball next to Moondust. He prodded her with a forepaw.

She raised her head, alert. "Heading out?"

"Starscreech and I are," he said. "We'll bring back some fresh-kill. I want you to watch over Oortcloud, Moondust, and the mice."

Cometfur nodded.

Asteroidpelt dismissed her with a flick of his tail and walked toward the den's main opening. Starscreech followed and together they set out to find breakfast.

* * *

"_Cometfur!"_

Asteroidpelt slipped and fell into the rabbit hole. "Wake up Moondust!"

Every head in the den turned to the sleeping she-cat. Asteroidpelt held his breath, regretting the scene he'd made.

As Cometfur leaned forward to arouse Moondust with a nudge, she blinked awake.

"What's happenin?"

Asteroidpelt saw Nimbus and a few others staring, but most of the rabbits dismissed the event and went back to their daily routine. He glanced at Moondust again and headed for the exit. "Follow me please."

Moondust stood. She arched her back and yawned.

"Hurry!"

"I'm comin, hon. Don't ya worry so much."

Something about her seemed off but Asteroidpelt didn't have time to figure her out. He ran out of the den.

Moondust crept into the sunlight, squinting. "What's this all about?"

"Starscreech." Asteroidpelt pointed to the tree line with a forepaw. "He's over there."

Cometfur came after Moondust. She climbed out of the hole and sneezed at the pollen. "What happened to him?"

"He was… uh, _bit._" Asteroidpelt stared at his paws.

Cometfur frowned at that word.

"Alright then," Moondust meowed. "Let's see em." She headed for the tree line.

"I don't know if you want to see," Asteroidpelt said to Cometfur in a hushed whisper. "It's bad."

She asked, "What bit him?"

"Some creature," Asteroidpelt said. "He caught one in our hunting contest, but he wasn't so lucky today."

"An act of vengeance!" Moondust said. "We'll just have to douse em in catnip."

Asteroidpelt shook his head. "This isn't time to joke. He's seriously hurt. Up ahead."

There was his body again, just as Asteroidpelt had left it a few moments ago. As he got closer he saw the scarlet stains across the surrounding leaves and grass.

"Oh," Moondust said. "It's actually… well, bad."

Asteroidpelt shushed her. "_Don't say that. _Just treat him."

Starscreech laid on his side. With each quick breath, more blood seemed to squeeze out of his shoulder. He raised his head and meowed, "Good start to the day?"

"My land," Moondust said. She started to breathe faster than Starscreech, backing away. "Um… I dunno what to do. I wasn't trained for this!"

Cometfur stared at her. "You're Mothwing's apprentice. Of course you're trained!"

Asteroidpelt noticed Cometfur keeping her eyes off Starscreech. "Maybe you're out of practice," he said. "We all are. But the knowledge is still there. What's first?"

"I said I don't know!" Moondust yowled. "Quit pressuring me! I took astrophysics and none o' that boring medical nonsense!"

Asteroidpelt took a step forward. He was used to weird and he was used to Moondust, but he wasn't used to there being more weird than there was Moondust.

"Moondust, what in StarClan's name are you talking about?"

"Moondust?" She said her own name as if it were an alien herb. "Oh! You think I'm—wait, you see me?"

Asteroidpelt glanced at Cometfur to see if she looked as confused as he was. Starscreech laid his head back down.

"Course we see you!" Cometfur hissed. "What's the matter? You're like a whole other cat!"

Moondust took her eyes away from Starscreech. "Because I _am _another cat." She sat, staring at her paws but looking past the drops of drying blood around them. "I don't know how this coulda happened. This isn't how I wanted to spend my Saturday!"

"Hold on." Asteroidpelt relaxed a few muscles. "What do you mean? If you aren't Moondust, then who are you? And how did you end up in her body?"

"I'm Dustmoon," she said. "However, I've no clue bout yo second question."

"Dustmoon?" Cometfur shook her head. "There's no way you're serious." Her eyes skimmed over the injured Starscreech. "How can you be serious at a time like this?"

"I _wish _this was a joke," Dustmoon meowed. "Um, anyone know first aid?"

Asteroidpelt was dazed. "I—uh, picked up a bit from helping Jayfeather." He started to think Starscreech might not be the only one with a big problem, though his issue was more urgent. "Cometfur. Go try to find something similar to cobweb. If there's rabbits and carrots on this planet there's sure to be some type of spider."

"Wretched things," Dustmoon added.

Cometfur ran off.

Asteroidpelt stared at Dustmoon. "You only gave me your name earlier. _Who _are you?"

"No need to get yo fur all tangled," she said. "I hate this as much as y'all. Anyway, Moondust and I met in space and we been friends ever since! Ya should be thankful cause o' me helpin out in yo battles."

"You helped us?" Asteroidpelt echoed. He remembered Bluestar 'helping' him in a few fights. Maybe it wasn't crazy to think this cat did as well. "Are you from StarClan?"

"I think," Dustmoon said. "Don't really remember stuff before meeting Moondust. That's weird."

"It sure is," Asteroidpelt said. He walked toward Starscreech. "How are you?"

"Better every nonsensical minute," he hissed. He made a quick effort to move his head into the shade.

Asteroidpelt winced. "Try not to move. And could you breathe more calmly?"

Starscreech didn't reply. He slowed his breathing.

"This sure is a shame," Dustmoon mumbled.

"What?"

"All this time I wanted to meet ya'll. And when I'm finally able to, _these_ are the circumstances. _Cuh_-rayzee!"

Asteroidpelt thought he was going cuh-rayzee himself. _Starscreech is more urgent, _he kept repeating in his head.

"Whoa. What happened here?"

_That's not Moondust's voice._

Asteroidpelt flipped around. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Nimbus took a few timid steps back. "Just curious about earlier. I thought you might have needed help. Looks like you do."

Asteroidpelt jumped between her and Starscreech. "We're fine. Had a small accident but it's nothing we haven't dealt with before. For most of us, anyway." He gave Dustmoon an accusing look.

"Hey," Dustmoon said, "ask me about the stars and I'll let you know all about em. That's why I study space things; it's far more interesting than plants and blood!"

"Right," Asteroidpelt said. "Because stars sure are helpful at a time like—"

Dustmoon laid her ears back and turned away. "And to think, all these moons ya seemed like a nice tom."

Asteroidpelt wished he'd caught his tongue sooner. Belittling someone's work is a level he thought he'd never stoop to. "I'm sorry for that. I'm just stressed. You see, as leader, all of this is my responsibil—"

"Don't be sorry!" Dustmoon hissed. "You remind me why I only talk to one real cat. Moondust doesn't shield herself with excuses when she's wrong."

Asteroidpelt glared at her. Although he understood his excuses were meaningless to her, he didn't appreciate her being unforgiving.

Nimbus hopped closer. "Uh, excuse me? If you two are going to fight, give me something to do. He needs help."

Asteroidpelt glanced at Starscreech and then at Nimbus. "We have a cat looking for wound-patching material."

"Should be easy enough if they're a good climber," Nimbus said. "There's plenty of web in the trees."

Asteroidpelt looked at Dustmoon, but remembered she wasn't Moondust. She couldn't tell him whether or not Cometfur could climb well. "I'm sure she can climb just fine."

Dustmoon paced. "It'd be great if I could float up as if I'm headin to StarClan, and then drop back down onto a branch and get the webs for ya. This living body is just too heavy!"

Nimbus blinked. "Is it normal for your kind to be able to float?"

"It isn't," Asteroidpelt said. "I'll climb one of these trees and see if I can find cobwebs." He readied himself at the base of a thick tree. After an instinctive wiggle of his hips he sprang onto it and latched on.

"That's useful," Nimbus said. "Every year our tribe has to cut down a tree to resupply on webs."

"How d'ya do that?" Dustmoon said.

Nimbus kept watching Asteroidpelt climb. "Chainsaws."

Asteroidpelt steadied himself on a stable branch in a bush of indigo tinted leaves.

"See anything?" Nimbus said from below.

Asteroidpelt couldn't see her well with a few leaves seeming to block his view at almost all times. He rotated on his branch and examined the tree. A hole ran a few mouse-lengths deep in the trunk.

He peered inside. A thin layer of stringy web hung unmoving in the shape of a funnel.

He stuck a forepaw in the tree and moved it around to collect the webs. "Found some."

"Great!" Nimbus called. "Break off a twig and use that to get it. Be sure to not use your paw!"

He jerked his paw out of the hole as if it were in range of a badger's snapping teeth. He looked at his paw. Web covered his pads. He exhaled, relieved, and started to put his paw back down.

Something caught his eye. He raised his paw again and saw a frail spider creeping around from his paw's other side. It walked on thin legs like stilts and seemed to notice his wide-eyed stare.

The spider struck down without hesitation. Its front legs contorted to let two sharp fangs fall into and puncture Asteroidpelt's soft paw pad.

In an effort to fling the spider away, he lost his balance and tipped too far from the branch.

Time seemed to move a bit slower, and in a moment spent praying to StarClan he could've sworn his life flashed before his eyes. Then his mind clung to a recent memory.

_Lunaheart._

He fell one fox-length. Two. Three.

He slammed into something, but it didn't feel like the ground. He blinked open one eye.

Dustmoon lay beside him. She stood and shook dirt from her pelt. "Ya about gave me a heart attack."

Relief surged through Asteroidpelt in tidal waves. Then he felt hot with embarrassment. "I―I'm so sorry."

Dustmoon sat with her back to him, licking some of her ruffled fur into place.

Nimbus looked up and down his body. "You look alright. Do you feel alright?"

Asteroidpelt moved his legs one at a time. None of them were sprained or broken. They just stung from the impact. He knew he'd have bruises later. "I feel okay. Nothing serious."

Nimbus took a deep breath. "You might want to thank her." She looked at Dustmoon. "Fast acting."

Asteroidpelt's ears raised in surprise. _I thought I landed on her. _Well, he did. But not by accident.

"It was nothin," Dustmoon said. "Ya got the webs?"

"Yeah," Asteroidpelt meowed. He tried standing up, but when he put pressure on one of his forepaws it stung like dozens of thorns stabbing at his pads. He hissed. The fall made him forget the bite.

"What's wrong?" Nimbus said, moving a bit closer.

Asteroidpelt raised his paw. "I got bit by a spider."

Nimbus groaned. "I told you not to use your paw."

"Yeah," Asteroidpelt said. "_After _the fact. What a terrible day."

"I'll be right back," Nimbus said. "See if you can patch up your friend." She ran away.

Asteroidpelt hobbled to Starscreech and unwrapped the web from his paw. It wasn't much, but it would help slow the bleeding. He pressed it onto Starscreech's shoulder, covering the dozen or so deep teeth wounds. _It's not enough._

Leaves rustled nearby.

"What took ya so long?" Dustmoon said.

"Forgot where to look!" Cometfur said between short breaths and a web-covered stick between her teeth. She ran to Starscreech and laid down the stick. As she prepared to place the web, she saw the covered wound and leaned back. "You already got some?"

Asteroidpelt nodded and prepared to place the web. "It wasn't enough though. Getting it was probably more harm than good."

"It's not enough though. Getting it was probably more harm than good."

"Why?" Cometfur asked.

Asteroidpelt heard more scurrying a few fox-lengths away.

Nimbus again. She held a thin vine in her maw. "Hold out your bitten paw."

Cometfur stepped around Starscreech to watch. "_Another_ bite?"

"Yep," Nimbus said. She wrapped the vine around his leg, above the bite. "This idiot used his _paw _to collect webs."

Cometfur snickered for a second, then silenced herself. "Is it serious?"

"Potentially." Nimbus pulled the vine tight. "There's an easy solution. This vine should help keep the venom at bay for now."

Asteroidpelt winced and put his constricted leg down. "What's the easy solution?"

Nimbus looked into the distance. "North of here, in the river, there's a rabbit who doesn't associate himself with a Tribe. We call him the Mystic, and he's usually the one to handle special injuries like a venomous bite."

"Sounds familiar," Dustmoon said. "Maybe he's the guy Moondust was talkin about yesterday in that cave."

"Could be," Asteroidpelt said.

"Uh," Nimbus said, "you already knew about him? How?"

Asteroidpelt sighed. He didn't want her to know they were going to follow Checkers' directions. But they _had to _to fix their communications. "We… heard about him. Must be some important rabbit, if he can do everything we hear he can." He looked at Cometfur. "Only problem is, we don't have the… _thing _we got yesterday. And I don't want to leave Starscreech like this."

Cometfur looked at Dustmoon. "Are you sure there's no way to talk to Moondust?"

"Yup," Dustmoon said.

Nimbus shook her head. "What in the world is going on? Büla told me Moondust joined us last night, and now you speak to her like she's not here. _Who is Moondust?_"

"None of us actually know what's wrong," Asteroidpelt said. "All I know is that she is normally Moondust, but earlier she woke up and told me she's Dustmoon. The big problem is, Moondust is our medicine cat. She has a bunch of herbs back at our ship but we wouldn't know which ones to get. And Dustmoon can't communicate with her in any way."

Nimbus stayed silent for a moment. "Sounds familiar."

Asteroidpelt tilted his head. "It does?"

"Yes, Nimbus said. "It sounds like a weird case we had a few seasons ago. One of our apprentices wouldn't wake up, so we carried him to the Mystic. Eventually he got him to wake back up."

"Then we should go to him," Asteroidpelt said. "It sounds like he has a good chance of being able to help Moondust, and that's our only way to help Starscreech. Now we just need the stone."

Nimbus let out an overwhelmed breath. She didn't prod for answers about the stone.

Cometfur took a step toward the Caramel camp. "I'll run back and get it. Meet you back here as quick as I can."

"Wait!" Dustmoon said, stepping closer to the group. "Just think for a sec! If all that time in space learned me anything, it's that we usually get somethin as soon as we need it. If we wait a few seconds, maybe the stone'll come to us!"

"That's ridiculous," Cometfur said.

"She could be right," Asteroidpelt said. He stood up. "Bluestar once said something a lot like that, and she was right. StarClan cats must know what they're talking about."

Dustmoon smirked.

Cometfur sat. "Who's Bluestar?"

Asteroidpelt decided not to answer, knowing that Nimbus was confused enough as is. "It's complicated."

Rustle from behind.

He flipped around, half-expecting the stone to come rolling out of a bush.

The stone rolled out of a bush.

Dustmoon jumped. "Hey! I was right!"

Oortcloud followed the stone out of the bush and kicked it closer to Asteroidpelt. "Breakfast ready?"

Asteroidpelt's stomach growled. "I wish. We have bigger problems."

Oortcloud noticed Starscreech and stopped walking. "I… I didn't know."

Asteroidpelt remembered Nippy's grandchildren. "Did you leave the mice?"

"Yeah," Oortcloud said. "They were still sleeping when I left. None of the rabbits seemed to care."

"Okay," Asteroidpelt said. He knew that at least Lyra could protect the group if something bad happened. "We're heading North, following Nimbus' lead." He looked at her. "If you'll lead us."

Nimbus took another glance at Starscreech and nodded. "I will."

"Great." Asteroidpelt picked up the stone in his teeth and went to Starscreech. The stone muffled his voice. "Can you stand?"

The injured tom, barely conscious, tried standing up.

"Cometfur, get his other side."

Asteroidpelt and Cometfur were at both shoulders to help steady him. The webs they had found did good to slow the bleeding, but he still needed a medicine cat's attention.

"Nimbus, lead," Asteroidpelt said. "Actually, Oortcloud, you've given me an idea."

Oortcloud perked up. "What's that?"

"Cometfur," Asteroidpelt said, "trade places with Dustmoon. You can hunt with Oortcloud. Dustmoon and I'll help Starscreech."

"I only need someone to my right," Starscreech said under his breath, keeping pressure off his right shoulder and leg.

Asteroidpelt was glad for that, because he realized that it might be impossible for him to support Starscreech and walk forward with his injured paw.

Nimbus lead the group toward the river, a short distance toward Numa territory. Oortcloud and Cometfur ran ahead to start hunting the prey that had yet to be disturbed by cats plodding through the woods. After they reached the river boundary, they headed north.

The white, hot, sun arced across the sky, moving a few mouse-lengths to time the slow journey. Cometfur and Oortcloud came back with fresh-kill. Starscreech ate first, Dustmoon second, and Asteroidpelt third. Then the two hunters caught meals of their own, and Nimbus snacked on blades of grass.

With bellies satisfied for the first time since they left their ship, Asteroidpelt thought they were doing well despite the wounds and mental predicament.

"There it is," Nimbus said. "In the water."

Asteroidpelt saw a light between rocks in the river. "What is that?"

"Hidden entrance," Nimbus said. "Also, the _only_ entrance." She raised a paw to a nearby tree and knocked on the trunk. "It's a complex system made of a rabbit's craziness."

Asteroidpelt heard a soft knock, as if the tree was hollow and a creature had communicated from the other side.

"I gotta get back to camp," Nimbus said. "There's chores to do, and Büla always gets worried when one of us is off on our own for too long. Tell him I sent you."

"Wait," Cometfur said, glancing back and forth between Nimbus and the weird opening in the riverbed. "How do we… uh, get inside?"

"Dive," Nimbus said as if it was obvious. "Just pull yourself in before the current drags you away." She turned away and scampered back toward the Caramel camp.

The cats exchanged a few astonished looks.

"Divin actually sounds kinda nice right now," Dustmoon said, breathing like a queen in labor. "The sun's too hot for all this walkin."

Oortcloud meowed, "I'm all set!" He stood at the river's edge, wiggling his haunches in preparation for a leap.

"Hold on," Asteroidpelt said, limping toward him. He dropped the ruby stone on the ground. "I'll go first. I don't think it's a trick, but if it is, maybe one of you can pull me back."

"A trick?" Oortcloud said. "Why don't you trust Nimbus? She's the nicest rabbit I ever chose not to eat!"

Asteroidpelt almost forgot about the harsh food chain on Earth. He shrugged the thought away. "I'm just trying to be safe." He took one more look at the water. Then he held his breath and jumped in.

The whitewater soaked into his fur and chilled his skin.

He clung to the opening as soon as he reached the bottom, a couple tail-lengths below the surface, and put all his effort into pulling his body through. He got a good grip on rock with his hind legs and pushed himself in. He fell a couple more tail-lengths and landed on hard compact dirt. His bitten paw felt numb to the pain after all the pressure he had put on it.

He took a long breath, stood, and shook his pelt dry.

There was a wooden stick mounted on the rock wall, lit by fire at the top. It gave off bountiful light that made it easy to see in the otherwise dark den-like cave and filled the air with the pervasive smell of ash and sizzling wood. There was a tidy nest nearby and odd objects stacked against a wall next to it. One was a stick with a sharp stone wrapped to the tip by vines much like the one coiled around Asteroidpelt's leg.

He looked overhead and saw the sun glistening through the whitewater. The water somehow flowed past the den without falling inside. He decided not to question it, given that he'd seen water hanging above a room under the lake back home. It wasn't new.

A small wooden sign on a wall near the cave's entrance read, "Super secret underwater base that _no one_ knows about."

_Splash._

Water and cat fell on Asteroidpelt. He tumbled over. "Sorry. Should've moved."

Cometfur got to her feet and sat next to him. "Perfect. Now that we're wet, let's hide in a dark cave so it'll take _ages_ to dry."

"_What are you?" _said a new voice.

Asteroidpelt turned to it.

A fuzzy rabbit peeked around the corner at them. It took glances at the stick with the sharp rock attached.

Asteroidpelt stood up. "Do you know Nimbus?"

The rabbit nodded.

"She sent us here," Cometfur cut in. "We could use your help."

"Ah, yes!" The rabbit hopped into the open. His eyes were river-white and his fur was purple like a rare dusk sky before the stars came to life. "She's one of the nicest rabbits I've ever treated! Whatever you are, you must be friendly if she sent you here."

"Don't worry, we are," Asteroidpelt meowed with certainty. "Are you the Mystic?" He raised his bitten paw. "I have this spider bite."

"Sure am," the rabbit said. "And that's an easy fix! He headed for a pile of herbs laying in dent in the den wall. "Sometimes I worry a poor creature will come in with an injury I _can't_ fix."

Two more cats fell into the den. Oortcloud and Starscreech. Oortcloud coughed up a bit of water and said, "That might have been fun if I didn't have to help you through."

Starscreech stood on his own, eyes almost shut due to fatigue. "That was refreshing." He laid back down and rolled on his back and uninjured shoulder, seeming to enjoy the cool air of the den.

The Mystic saw the web-covered shoulder and sighed.

Dustmoon fell through the entrance last, somehow managing to land on her back. She rolled and got to her paws. "Ya know, I'm not feeling too good. It's just so hot out there. Ya don't mind if I lie down for a second, do ya?"

"I wasn't expecting such a group," the rabbit said, staring. "That's fine. I have spare nests prepared."

Dustmoon got settled in a nest and within seconds fell asleep.

The rabbit abandoned his wall of medicine and hopped next to Starscreech. "I don't usually treat this kind of injury."

"No problem," Cometfur said. "My sister does; only problem is she's gone insane."

Asteroidpelt glanced at Dustmoon, but she had fallen asleep too soon to hear that. "Nimbus told us you might be able to help her. When she woke up this morning she was totally different."

"What?" Oortcloud said. "Why wasn't I told this?"

"I thought you'd figure it out yourself," Asteroidpelt said. "She's like the complete opposite of Moondust."

"Never would have guessed," Oortcloud meowed.

The Mystic thought, staring at Dustmoon. "I've solved a similar illness in the past. As far as I know, her spirit is lost to a place I call _the Furrier_."

"Lost?" Asteroidpelt said. The thought of her being lost forever made his fur bristle. "We can find her again, right?"

Cometfur and Oortcloud stared at the Mystic, tails batting against the floor.

"Yes, we can try," the Mystic said. "I'll just need to figure out which of you is best suited for such a task."

He hopped closer to Cometfur, assessing her with eyes that darted from feature to feature. "Constant frown, stiff posture, restless tail," he listed. "You don't want to be here. I sense that you care about the lost spirit yet do not take matters seriously enough to search for her."

Cometfur didn't deny her disbelief. She said through clenched teeth, "I'll do what I can to help, but I don't believe her body was taken over by some spirit." She paused. "That's just dumb."

The Mystic nodded and continued to the next cat. He met Oortcloud's goofy grin. "You're too…" The rabbit didn't finish his sentence. Maybe there were too many bad aspects to list. "Very well," he said as he hopped in front of Asteroidpelt.

Asteroidpelt heard Oortcloud mutter, "…Too cool to be put at risk on a dangerous mission."

It took longer to assess Asteroidpelt. The rabbit stared into his eyes, making the tom's paws shift across the ground. Asteroidpelt kept flicking his eyes away but then decided they would be best resting on the Mystic's judging gaze.

"Yes," the rabbit said. It made Asteroidpelt flinch despite being little more than a whisper. "You will journey into the Furrier and rescue your friend."

His hair stood on-end. "W—why me?"

"This one might have worked." The Mystic hopped over to Starscreech, who had at some point fallen asleep next to the wall. "I don't know how such wounds would affect his spiritual body. Otherwise he has a relatively strong physique and great mind, but he falls short at one crucial trait. I noticed it the moment he fell into this den. He's far too fearless to survive in that world."

Asteroidpelt leaned his head forward and tilted it, asking for a reiteration.

"You heard me," the Mystic said, looking back at Asteroidpelt. "Runners are survivors in the Furrier. You know when to back down from a confrontation."

_Story of my life, _Asteroidpelt thought.

"Plus," the Mystic continued, "you have something the others don't."

"What's that?" he said, anticipating something ridiculous like 'the power of cowardice.'

"Experience. You've been there before."

His fur bristled, claws unsheathed. He shook his head, catching blurry glimpses of his friends' wide eyes and gaping maws at the edge of his vision. "That's not possible. I don't remember going there and I'm completely myself. My spirit's not lost!"

The Mystic grimaced. "I suppose I should have explained this already. The Furrier is a place spirits go before reaching the afterlife. Certain creatures—particularly those who fall into the deepest of slumbers—can slip into the Furrier before death. You might have dismissed it as a regular dream. If that's the case, you're lucky to be yourself."

Something connected in Asteroidpelt's mind like two gentle streams joining to create a roaring river of ideas and realization. _He could be right, _he thought. "Can you... tell me what this place looks like?"

The Mystic thought for a moment, whiskers turned at an angle as his face scrunched up in concentration. "I suppose, for a cat that's still alive, it might look like a place in your memories. But from experience with like a _ton _of meditation, I've come to know the Furrier as a timeless realm. What you see there might be familiar, but it could appear as itself in another time."

Asteroidpelt's stomach squirmed. His assumption was right. "I _have_ been there." He stared at Oortcloud. "During your little show. It was the day we landed on Mill."

"I wouldn't call my show little," Oortcloud said. "Act six was climactic. Right, Cometfur?"

She didn't spare him a second of attention. "What did you see in the so-called Furrier?"

Asteroidpelt said, "The lake. Only it was dried up. But it was also cold. And someone told me to hurry up."

"This is weird," Oortcloud said. "But I think it sorta makes sense. Moondust has been weird about those words. What are they called? Pro hounds?"

"Pro_nouns_," Asteroidpelt said. "She calls herself _we _instead of _I._"

Cometfur paced. "But how is this possible? There's no weird spirit world! Just StarClan and the Dark Forest."

"That's what you question?" Oortcloud said. "We fought living carrots yesterday."

"At least they were _real_," she said.

"It was too vivid to be a dream," Asteroidpelt said, trying to convince himself. "I could feel each freezing grain of dirt between my pads and I could hear the buzz of two fireflies individually. It _has _to be real."

Cometfur stopped pacing and let out a low growl, facing the far wall of the den where her litter-mate's body lied unconscious, rising and falling with each gentle breath. "Then prove it. Bring her back."

"Then I think we're ready," the rabbit said. "Everybody who's not dreaming, _get outta here!_"

Oortcloud and Cometfur stepped away from the others.

"There's nowhere else to go," Oortcloud pointed out.

"Just joking," the Mystic said. "I live in a cave. I don't mind a cramped workspace." He turned to Asteroidpelt. "Lie down next to her."

"Uh, sure." Asteroidpelt lied next to Dustmoon. He wasn't sure how he'd get to sleep with so much on his mind.

"In the Furrier, you must remember who you are; don't let anything consume you; and most importantly, try not to snore."

Asteroidpelt acknowledged him with a nod.

"Close your eyes and focus only on my voice," the rabbit said. "Good. Now think of your toes."

Asteroidpelt took a breath, assumed the rabbit was serious, and thought of his toes.

"Once you imagine your toes, forget about them. Make them go to sleep. Then do the same for your legs."

The commands weren't difficult to follow, but they were hard for Asteroidpelt to take seriously.

"Think of whatever body part is farthest from your mind and forget about that too."

He forgot his tail, then his lower back and abdomen, then his belly. It felt like those 'forgotten' parts didn't belong to him anymore. They were just gone.

"Slowly forget all but your mind. Leave your body behind."

Then his shoulders and neck. And finally his head. He couldn't feel his body anymore. He felt almost paralyzed, although he didn't break concentration. He had to do this for Moondust.

"Now stand up."

Asteroidpelt stood. He wasn't in a den anymore.

He stood at the edge of a dried-up lake; the heart of Clan territory. A heavy cloud of fog drowned out almost all sunlight and suffocated his vision.

Words of the Mystic seemed to whisper at him from falling leaves in the windless air. "Keep your guide, and a steady stride… and into the Furrier you go."

Asteroidpelt shivered, chilled by the words and icy air.

Then the words came back. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. You're stronger than they are. You are a living soul."

The words left him in silence again, bones rattling as his imagination assembled a nightmarish guess at what _they _were.

He saw a cat standing a few tail-lengths away. She looked like Moondust but with a reversed white and gray pelt pattern. "Dustmoon."

"Asteroidpelt," she said in a sour tone. Her eyes were at first loathful. Then they widened.

Two fireflies buzzed past Asteroidpelt's head.

He knew what was going on. He turned around just in time to see the fireflies plant themselves into the head of the shadowy cat just like last time he had been there. "What do you want now? Here to deliver another urgent message?"

The shadow cat let out a high-pitch hiss.

Asteroidpelt had never heard a hiss like it. It pierced the silence and would be heard from every corner of Clan territory.

Pieces of the shadowy figure bubbled like a liquid coming to a boil. Then it exploded.

It knocked Asteroidpelt back. He saw the tiny bits and pieces of darkness hover around him. They expanded into giant globs of shadow, forming a hemisphere about eight fox-lengths in diameter.

He looked back, but the shadows separated him from Dustmoon.

He was alone with…

He looked to where the shadow cat was.

"Welcome, welcome. You must be the―breakfast."

Asteroidpelt's heart begged to stop beating. "You're… there's no way."

"Me―worked up quite the appetite." The tom's voice was warped. At times it even cut, as if shifting to a different thought.

The name left Asteroidpelt's maw in a puff of condensation. "Scorpiustail."

"It's me." Scorpiustail stepped forward. "So, you're the one who's destined to―fail."

Asteroidpelt felt a jolt of realization; it shook his limbs and almost made him collapse. The Mystic had called the Furrier a _timeless realm, _so did that mean Scorpiustail spoke in a blend of words he'd said in the past? Most were twisted into an even darker meaning. He backstepped.

"Look how pathetic," Scorpiustail said. He dropped low, _a hunter's crouch, _muscles poised to strike. "That's hilarious!"

Asteroidpelt's rear paw bumped into the shadowy hemisphere. It was solid as a rock. He gulped.

_Wait. I'm the living soul._

"It's a pleasure to have you." Scorpiustail bared his teeth and pounced.

Asteroidpelt stood still and concentrated, thinking about his body in the Mystic's den. Whatever this shadow was, _it wouldn't touch him._

But it did.

Sorta.

Scorpiustail struck, but his extended claws didn't scratch. He jumped _through _Asteroidpelt and turned into a dispersing figure of shadow again.

The force of the pounce pushed Asteroidpelt back anyway. He fell, hit the wall of shadow behind him, and then scrambled back to his feet. He watched his surroundings, not daring to expend effort by calling out to that thing.

Shadows extended from the dome of darkness and fused into a small shadow cat at the center. After it grew to normal proportions, the shadow faded away and a new Scorpiustail fell to the ground. He hissed, "That's not fair!" and rushed his opponent.

Asteroidpelt was tempted to step back or dodge but he forced himself to concentrate, putting all his power into one simple thing: standing his ground.

Scorpiustail hit him, but not as hard. He dissipated again.

This time Asteroidpelt readied himself to strike back. Just like last time, the shadows grew from the hemisphere to form another shadow cat. Asteroidpelt rallied his strength and jumped at it, plowing through it mid-air and causing the cocoon-like ball of darkness to break apart and fade.

The dome collapsed around him as it faded to nothing.

Dustmoon batted at an insect. "These lil' fireflies got stuck outside that wall o' darkness! Don't you worry though, I took em out."

Asteroidpelt panted. "Thank StarClan I'm rid of _that_."

"You're welcome," Dustmoon said. "Now, where do ya suppose we should go about lookin for Moondust?"

_To Be Continued..._


	6. E204pt2: A Ticky Situation

A/N: **With this episode I've hit 100,000 words in Space Clan altogether. **So thank you to anyone who's reading this; I wouldn't have started Season 2 if no one asked for it.

Enjoy part two of this Insidious-inspired episode! And what's that? Foreshadowing for... something? Let's just say it's about things to come.

* * *

Space Clan

Season 2 Episode 4 Part 2

A Ticky Situation

* * *

The dried up lake was blanketed by a thick fog. It was so quiet, Asteroidpelt thought he could hear his pads freezing to the dead grass he stood on.

He noticed a see-through version of himself and Moondust lying on the ground, sound asleep. It distracted him from the question.

"Moondust is RiverClan," he replied, lifting his uncomfortable paws. "It makes sense for her to go there."

"She's what?" Dustmoon asked. She stood up, taking her attention away from the dead fireflies at her paws.

Asteroidpelt stared at her. "RiverClan. Surely you know about the Clans, being from StarClan after all." She didn't reply. "You don't know what RiverClan is?"

"Nah," she said. "I know what those Clan things are. It's just that I didn't know Moondust was from RiverClan. It never occurred to me. She's always been my best bud medicine catstronaut."

"Medicine catstronaut?" Asteroidpelt meowed. "She's that too, but we all have a Clan. It's the big thing that separated the team when we first met."

"I dunno," Dustmoon said. She looked into the distance, but there was no way she could have seen more than a few fox-lengths through the fog. "See a Moonpool anywhere? She mentioned it was important to her job."

"She wouldn't be there," Asteroidpelt said. "She'd go home."

"Well then, ya can check RiverClan while I check the Moonpool." Dustmoon headed toward ShadowClan territory.

Asteroidpelt sighed. "Wait. We need to stay together. Another lost spirit is something we _don't _need." He sped up to her. "It's _that _way."

She noted his direction and adjusted her course. "Glad ya decided to see reason," she purred, jokingly.

Despite the light tone, Asteroidpelt flicked his tail in annoyance. "It's alright. When you don't find her at the Moonpool, you'll know you were wrong."

She hissed, "What's wrong with you? I've known ya for a day and you're nothin' like how ya were when I watched from outside."

"Outside what?"

"Moondust's body."

"Maybe _that_ is what's wrong with me," Asteroidpelt growled. "I can't handle someone stealing my friend's body! It really upsets me!"

"Stealin'?" Dustmoon stopped walking and gave him a death-glare. "This is all just as much a surprise to me as it is to you! Ya think I liked getting tired for once? Or being hungry? Or having to _walk_? It's not my fault, and if it was, I'd sure be regretful."

Asteroidpelt didn't respond for a few moments. He took a calming breath. "Then why has this happened?"

"Heck if I know," Dustmoon said. She kept walking and Asteroidpelt followed. "Just stop blamin me for all this."

He knew she was right. Blame would get him nowhere. "I'm sorry."

"Ya should be."

"Oh, come on! Accept an apology for once."

"I forgave ya. But ya still should be sorry."

Asteroidpelt exhaled, displeased. They reached the border of ThunderClan and WindClan and followed the neutral path toward the Moonpool. The familiar surroundings made him think about the real world and its problems. Dying Earth, fighting tribes, and most urgent, Starscreech's injury. He needed Moondust's help.

"Let's hurry," he said. "We're pressed for time after all." They quickened their pace, running up the hill that separated the two Clans.

They came to a dry river that lead into WindClan territory and away from the Moonpool. Asteroidpelt understood that with the lake dry, all of its sources must be gone. The Moonpool probably wouldn't even have water.

The riverbed went underground. "Watch this," Asteroidpelt said. "I know where this comes out." He jumped into the trench and headed into the tunnel, a tight squeeze but not too restricting.. Thick, abundant roots were interlaced overhead, holding the dirt and preventing the tunnel from caving in. He heard Dustmoon walking behind him.

"Where's this go?" she asked.

There was light ahead. "Unless Jayfeather's either mouse-brained or a liar…" Asteroidpelt stuck his head out of the tunnel. "The Moonpool."

He was in the center of the waterless pool. The rocky wall on the far side of the pool was bone-dry, unlike the ones in the real world which were slick with cool, running, water. The other side of the pool was an empty sandy shore.

"Move outta the way!"

Asteroidpelt jumped out of the tunnel so Dustmoon could get through. "I'm sor―" He caught himself before apologizing to her.

"She's not here?" Dustmoon huffed. "No way."

Asteroidpelt made his way out of the empty pool and sniffed at the shore. He saw faded footprints in the sand and thought they might be Moondust's. _She's not here anymore, _he thought. _So Dustmoon still isn't right._

He meowed, "Let's head to the RiverClan camp. It's the only other place she can be."

"Hold on a second." Dustmoon stood in the middle of the Moonpool. "Medicine catstronaut. If a medicine cat would come here, where would a catstronaut go?"

Asteroidpelt thought of the underground HQ where he'd first been outfitted for the mission. "There is a place we can check on the way to RiverClan. But I'm telling you she won't be there. A workplace doesn't compare to a home."

"Unless ya got a really cool workspot," Dustmoon meowed. She looked at the ground. "Speaking of those, I really miss my telescope." She looked at Asteroidpelt. "How do we get to the other place Moondust might be?"

"Wait a minute," Asteroidpelt said. He had an idea. "Before we leave, I want to try sharing tongues with StarClan."

"Sharin what now?"

"It's what Moondust does here. Clan leaders also do it during their inauguration. Maybe I could speak to StarClan. I'm the leader of Space Clan, right?"

"Um, I'm not sure if it works if there's a space in the Clan's name."

"Of course there's space in Space Clan."

"Oh, right. I guess so."

Asteroidpelt wasn't sure he was right. It was taboo for standard warriors to sleep at the Moonpool, although this was the Furrier Moonpool. It might play by a different set of rules. "StarClan could probably tell me where Moondust is."

"If ya meet someone named Lionheart, say hi for me."

Asteroidpelt walked across the empty pool and laid next to the dry rocks. He remembered how the Mystic had helped him fall asleep so quickly and focused on repeating the process. He willed his body asleep until only his waking mind remained.

Far-off voices in the clasping darkness. An unseen conversation. The voices came closer.

"_Smooth sailing ahead; this is rare._"

"_You should continue the story. I'm lovin' it._"

"_Okay, there are quite a few changes. ...will find you in your sleep._"

Asteroidpelt didn't hear what was going to find him in his sleep.

"_Love it. I think it would be interesting for—_"

"_Doctor Who reference? You would be predicting the future!_"

"_Happy holidays to you!_"

"_Awwwwwwwwww._"

"_Complex dreams are cool._"

Asteroidpelt blinked awake and moved away from the rocks.

"That didn't take long," Dustmoon said. "Speak to any StarClan cats?"

"I didn't get to speak to anyone." Asteroidpelt looked at her. "I heard voices, but they didn't sound like any cats I know of."

Dustmoon didn't reply. Her whiskers twitched; she seemed displeased at the waste of time.

Asteroidpelt padded out of the empty pool and headed for ThunderClan territory. "The only entrance I know of is in Firestar's den."

* * *

"Our ancestors foretold the coming of extraterrestrials. They preached that the arrival of these aliens would be followed by this world's rarest occurrence: the alignment of all seven moons across the horizon.

"Of course, that's just a bedtime story for the kittens. Our ancestors were total loons that the Tribes try to forget at every waking moment. I, however, like to remember their wild tales and appreciate our kind's improved intelligence.

"Enough of our history. Please, tell me about your kind."

Oortcloud and Cometfur looked at each other.

"My Clan," Oortcloud said first, "is the proudest group of jerks around the lake. We're a pretentious bunch if you get to know us! As strangers we come off as shallow, ignorant, mouse-brains who value nothing but self gain. We're great!"

The Mystic tilted his head. "They sound… lovely."

Cometfur wasn't sure if talking about the mission or the Clans was a good idea. "We're an uninteresting bunch. Never really knew much about the stars until recently."

"Oh, nonsense!" the Mystic said as if he was glad to respond to a more sensible person. "Our two kinds are simply more advanced in different ways. For creatures evidently raised in different social backgrounds, you sure do a good job at getting along. Meanwhile the Tribes are at each other's neck."

_Don't worry, _Cometfur thought, _we're just as violent!_

Starscreech rolled over in his nest. "Moondust," he said. "I think you should change these webs."

Moondust's body didn't move.

"Starscreech," Cometfur said. "Something's wrong with her. Asteroidpelt's trying to bring her back right now."

Starscreech noticed Asteroidpelt lying next to Moondust's body. "He's helping her… _by sleeping?_"

"It's complicated," Cometfur said. "We'll spare you the headache and explain it once you're all better. For now I'll go get some more webs."

"Or," Oortcloud cut in, "I could explain it to you while she's getting more web! After all I need to practice my story-telling."

Starscreech said nothing and laid his back down against the soft, grassy, nest.

Oortcloud's tail swished behind him. "Maybe he'll want to hear about it after a quick nap."

Cometfur looked around the fire-lit den. "How do I get out of here?"

"One entrance and exit," the Mystic said from his own nest. He looked at the opening in the den's ceiling where the whitewater flowed overhead.

"Right," Cometfur said. "And I was almost completely dry."

* * *

The camp was unwelcoming. It seemed like everything was directing them away. First little insects came buzzing around their faces. They swatted those away without much thought. Then every other root seemed to snag at their paws and cause a tumble.

Asteroidpelt tripped at the camp's entrance for the fifth time. "No roots in camp." He started crawling through the bramble entrance.

The walls of the entrance felt tighter with each second spent inside. They constricted him as he was weaving through.

He grunted and pulled his hind legs through, then looked back and saw the entrance expand. "You'll want to get through that fast!"

Dustmoon whisked through before the tightening brambles could slow her down. "Great security system."

Asteroidpelt didn't want to think about what would happen if a cat were to get trapped in there. He turned and headed for the secret entrance. "Firestar's den is just up―" He froze.

A shadowy figure sat on highledge.

"Another one?" Dustmoon said.

That one looked different. Unlike the Scorpiustail shadow, this one didn't have accompanying fireflies for eyes. It lowered its jaw, showing off sharp thorn-like teeth.

Asteroidpelt looked closer.

Vines with sharp, red, thorns made up the inside of the shadow's mouth. Some cut through the mass of shadow forming its jaw and upper lip, but it didn't seem to care.

"Go ahead," Dustmoon said, taking a step back. "Do your thing and get rid of it."

Asteroidpelt's fur bristled. "Don't force this on me! I already dealt with one today!"

The shadow cat jumped down from highledge and walked toward the duo. In a standing position its two―yes, two―tails were displayed. They stood straight up, barely swaying, and showed off decorative thorny vines wrapped around each.

"Maybe we could take another route." Asteroidpelt ran for the exit.

The brambles constricted again, sealing their only quick escape.

The thorn cat stopped in the middle of the stone hollow. He leaned forward, examining them without eyes. "How can a dumb bit of fresh-kill―live with a paw in each world?" Its voice cut similarly to Scorpiustail's shadow.

Dustmoon hissed, "It's easier than you think."

Asteroidpelt said, "We just need to get through the camp. It'll take five seconds. Then you can go back to being ominous or whatever."

The thorn cat shook its head. It knelt and turned in the blink of an eye.

Asteroidpelt was knocked to the ground before he could process the attack. He scrambled to his feet. _Did it use its tail to do that? _

The thorn cat knelt again and swung its tails. The vines that were wrapped around them lengthed enough to hit Asteroidpelt's paws from five fox-lengths away.

He fell to the ground again. As he staggered to his feet he saw Dustmoon still lying down. "We're gonna have to jump over."

"Amazing plan!" she said, standing up. "I thought we'd have to latch on with our teeth and swing ourselves into Firestar's den!"

_Not a bad idea, _Asteroidpelt thought, although he knew that it was easier said than done. "A concept's one thing and execution is another."

"I wasn't serious, ya idiot."

The thorn cat did a quick turn, scraping its thorny vines across the ground once again and leaving scratches in the dirt and stone.

Asteroidpelt hopped straight up.

The vines went under him.

"Any other ideas?" he said. "Maybe ones that are a bit more realistic?"

Dustmoon regained her balance after her last jump. "Why do we need a realistic idea for an unrealistic situation?"

Asteroidpelt prepared for the next sweep of vines. "Let's just attack. I've got no better idea."

"When?"

"_Now!"_

Asteroidpelt jumped forward and over the vines as they swung past, then hit the ground running toward the thorn cat. He looked back and saw that Dustmoon hadn't advanced with him. His forward charge faltered, but he kept his momentum trained on the enemy.

He leapt, forelegs stretched and claws extended with the intent to end that shadow thing.

The shadow looked straight at him despite having no eyes, and it formed a wide grin. Then it struck at him with its other tail.

As Asteroipelt flew through the air he thought, _Did that really just happen?_

The wall of the stone hollow knocked the air out of him with force that would kill a cat in the real world.

He fell to the ground, limp as a kit held by its mother.

_Of all things, why do I think of you when something terrible happens?_

"_Why wouldn't you? It's only natural to think about one's past in a situation like this. Ever hear of life flashing before one's eyes?_"

_Yeah. It happens. But why do my life's memories stop moving on you every time?_

"_Do you remember me well?_"

_Only as Kuiperpelt._

"Get up!"

Teeth clenched the skin at the back of his neck and yanked him to his feet just in time for vines to trip him again.

He hissed and opened his eyes. Dustmoon was in front of him, getting to her feet. "C'mon, Asteroidpelt! Ya can't keep laying down!"

_Bet you I can, _he thought.

She grabbed the scruff of his neck again and pulled him to his feet. "Jump, ya mouse-brain!"

Every bit of his body hurt, but he knew it would only get worse if he let this thorny shadow win. He saw the enemy turn and the vines swing across the ground.

He jumped. It was barely high enough to clear the vines; he swore he felt the thorns skid across the bottom of his pads. He landed, and felt something draped across one of his forepaws.

The vine Nimbus had tied around his leg was partially unwrapped. It only circled his leg twice. The rest of the vine slunk across his claws. _Hold on. Vines. Tie._

"Dustmoon, I've got an idea," he said.

She was watching the thorn cat closely. "Tell me!"

He raised his paw to show her the vine. "What if we do like you said and grab his tails, then tie him up?"

They jumped over another tail attack.

"Good luck catchin that between yo teeth at _that _speed!"

Asteroidpelt looked at the thorny cat. At their current position, the vines whipped by at a dangerous speed. Closer to the shadow the vines didn't move half as fast. "If we get closer," he said, "they'll be easier to grab."

"Fine. It's worth a shot. You lead."

Asteroidpelt nodded. He still hurt, but the thought of defeating that foe and finding Moondust made his blood pump.

He sprang forward, running as if he were about to attempt another tackle.

The shadow prepared its second tail for a strike like last time.

Asteroidpelt stopped running and waited.

The thorn cat turned, swinging its primary tail at him, but it was like trying to strike a lion with the handle of a whip. It didn't have the force necessary to deal proper damage.

Asteroidpelt grabbed the vine as is crawled past. The thorns stung his mouth and pricked his tongue.

Dustmoon grabbed the end of the stationary vine.

The thorn cat leaned back as if surprised by the duo's new tactic. He turned and swung his second tail.

Asteroidpelt let go of the first tail and batted the second one away before it could impact, then latched onto it. Both he and Dustmoon held a separate vine connected to the shadow. He ran to his left, circling the thorn cat and spinning it around until it was restrained by its second vine. Then Dustmoon pulled the first vine around, wrapping the shadow in that one as well, ensuring the bond was secure.

The thorn cat writhed in a tangle of its own vines. Its shadowy skin crawled and dispersed across the ground until a fluffy golden tom remained in its place.

Dustmoon gasped. "Lionheart?"

The tom still lied on the ground despite his restraints fading away. His eyes snapped to Dustmoon. "You're just―like me." He coughed and his head drooped back to rest on the ground. "...Not―real."

Dustmoon turned away.

Asteroidpelt stared closely at the Lionheart shadow. He hadn't heard of him in any elder's story, so he must be ancient even for StarClan standards. Suddenly Asteroidpelt noticed he could see the ground beneath Lionheart. "He's fading. Like the Scorpiustail shadow."

Dustmoon didn't say anything.

Asteroidpelt watched until Lionheart's shadow was completely transparent and perhaps nonexistent. Then he took a seat on the ground, allowing his heart time to cool down. He looked at Dustmoon. "I'm sure he's fine," he said between pants. "We've already seen that this place has no connection to StarClan."

"That's not what upsets me," Dustmoon said. She spun around and looked at where the Lionheart shadow was lying a few moments ago. "I'm real, aren't I?"

"Sure you are," Asteroidpelt said. "Um…" He struggled to think of an example to back up his claim. "Didn't you say you helped us in battles? Only a real cat could do that."

Dustmoon nodded, her ears were laid back and her tail swept across the ground behind her, much like the viney ones that swayed behind the Lionheart shadow. "But I'm different from the StarClan cats. They all have memories of their life." She took a deep breath. "I don't. I can't even remember anything before meeting Moondust!"

Asteroidpelt said, "Well, you're happy, aren't you?"

"Ya got that right." Her eyes were a little less dim. "I have an amazing best friend, a loving mate, and a job that's more like play than work."

"Then why do you care what Lion―I mean, the shadow, says? Just shut those thoughts out and focus on your life."

"I guess… when you're right, you're right. Thanks. I almost forgot what really matters." Dustmoon stood. "But I can't think about what makes me happy if Moondust is still in danger. Let's head for RiverClan."

Asteroidpelt nodded and purred, "We actually make a good team, don't we?"

Dustmoon growled, "Only when ya don't got bees in yo brain."

For once, the bitterness didn't upset Asteroidpelt. He was proud of them for conquering the shadow.

Together they headed for Firestar's den, across the camp, up the path next to highledge, and through the gorse entrance.

Asteroidpelt examined the wall farthest from the den's opening and found the small indent Firestar pressed to open the secret passage. He placed his unbitten paw on the indent and pushed. The rocks split apart, opening into darkness.

"I remember the elevator being bright," Asteroidpelt said.

Dustmoon walked inside. "Can't expect it to be exactly like the real world."

Asteroidpelt followed. "I guess I should be used to it by now. Especially after the crazy ordeal we just went through."

The rocks slid shut, trapping them in darkness. They descended.

Asteroidpelt thought, _If the HQ is dark, this might be a bad idea._

* * *

"Moondust said she was actually another cat called Dustmoon who knows nothing about medicine! Then Asteroidpelt went to sleep next to Moondust to meet her in some furry world, and now we're just waiting on them to wake back up!"

Starscreech groaned. "Perhaps a paragraph summary wasn't enough to help me understand. Can you try a _sentence summary?_"

"Hmm, good idea," Oortcloud said. His head swayed in thought. "Alright. Moondust is Dustmoon, so Asteroidpelt is getting her back. How's that?"

"Better," Starscreech said.

There was a splash and a wet smack against the floor. Cometfur got to her feet. "Mystic, you might want to consider adding a dry, tunnel entrance."

"I'll consider it," the rabbit said. "Oh, and did I not introduce myself? Excuse my rudeness. The name's Em."

"Good to know," Cometfur said with a web-covered stick in her mouth, rushing to Starscreech's side.

"Is Em short for something?" Oortcloud asked.

"Emerald," Em said, watching Cometfur hesitate with applying the web. "Need any help?"

Cometfur stepped back. "Please."

Em took her spot and removed the old web. He unwrapped the new web from the stick.

Oortcloud breathed on his shoulder. "Can I call you Merald instead?"

Em ignored him, focused on applying the new web.

Cometfur said, "Another reason we came is because we need your help repairing something. Someone from Numa Tribe told us you'd be able to help."

"What is it you need fixed?"

"Uh, I think it's like, some kind of dish that sends messages."

Em finished applying the web. He threw the stick aside. "What do you need to send messages for?"

"I'm not the best to explain this. It's really… um, technical, I think." Cometfur looked at Oortcloud, hoping he'd offer something useful.

"Once we fix our comms," Oortcloud said, "can we order pizza from space? Always wanted to try it made with moon-cheese."

Cometfur exhaled. "I'll go get that stone. Saw Asteroidpelt drop it outside."

* * *

The underground HQ was dark.

Asteroidpelt remembered how harshly the artificial lights shone on him so many moons before. He had hated it and preferred golden, warming, sunlight, but he still would rather have bright lights than none at all.

"I don't like this," he said. "Maybe we should have stayed above-ground."

Dustmoon didn't reply for a few moments. They walked through an open doorway. "We're lucky them doors opened up when they lost power. It doesn't make sense, but I'll take it."

Asteroidpelt realized she was right. An even bigger thing to question was how the elevator worked when everything else didn't. "We can't expect this place to make sense."

They entered the launch room; that big one where they once stored the ship. The top of the room was opened to the bottom of the dry lake. Soft light hit the fog that filled the room and pawsteps echoed in the huge space.

Asteroidpelt recalled the day he walked along the ThunderClan path―hanging so far above the room's floor―and joined his friends and their leaders at the central platform next to the ship. That day the room smelled like excitement.

In the Furrier it smelled like all the lake's water had drained into the launch room, hatched a few batches of mosquito larvae, and grown mold.

He looked over the edge of the platform. _Nope, no swamp water. _It was like the Furrier assaulted his senses for no explained reason.

At the central platform he and Dustmoon turned and headed up the RiverClan path.

"Should we call out?"

"To who?" Dustmoon asked.

"Moondust, if she's here."

"I'm not sure," she said. "I feel like we should, but at the same time I'm a lil wary of giving away our position in such a dangerous room."

Asteroidpelt agreed. If there were any more shadows around, he definitely didn't want to fight them on such a high platform where he could be pushed off. "I worry we'll pass her by."

"Me too," Dustmoon said. They entered the RiverClan door and walked down a hallway. "But maybe we should save yowling for when we're really desperate."

Asteroidpelt nodded. "Our last resort."

Each room was quiet. They kept looking left and right as they passed doors in the hallway. A suiting room, a desolate cafeteria, and a break-room that didn't even offer the smell of muffins and coffee grains.

They came to another elevator.

Asteroidpelt shrugged. "She must be at the RiverClan camp." _Like I've been telling you all along, _he thought.

They got into the elevator and pushed the _ground_ button.

"What if we don't find her?" Dustmoon said. "Or worse, what if she's not even here?"

"Where else would she be?" Asteroidpelt asked. The elevator rose and he crouched. "It's not like she'd be with the Tribe of Rushing Water."

"I dunno what that is." Dustmoon sighed. "I meant, what if she's not in the furry?"

_The Furrier, _Asteroidpelt corrected for himself. "You could be right. I think we were all quick to go along with the Mystic's idea. We could have another problem on our paws entirely, but we shouldn't get too doubtful before checking her Clan. I know that's where she is."

The elevator stopped and the doors opened.

It was the first time Asteroidpelt had seen Leopardstar's den. It was between two large rocks, sealed by moss and grass in places rain might seep through.

He ran outside. "Moondust?" He waited. Dustmoon joined him.

"Moondust!" he said again.

No answer.

Dustmoon sat down, tail still and ears laid flat.

"I―I'll go check her den." Asteroidpelt looked around camp.

He found a den with many different nests and another that had only two. He inhaled but didn't detect any cat smell. "This is her Clan. She should be here," he said, mainly trying to convince himself.

He padded past a thorn bush next to another dried-up stream. A den hung over the dry stream. He glanced inside.

Herbs. They were knocked all over the place. Asteroidpelt was more surprised by the fact that he could see them. There was little light shining into the den, and the fog was usually no help.

Actually, where _was _the fog? He could see the back wall of the den better than he could see his own forepaws. The room's unique clarity seemed to flow out into the rest of the camp.

"Dustmoon, do you see this?"

She stared for a few seconds. Her eyes widened. "That a ghost?"

"I don't know," Asteroidpelt meowed. "It's making it easier to see."

The anti-fog encompassed the entire camp, and soon Asteroidpelt could see almost as if he wasn't in the Furrier. Far-off leaves were sharper and the area got brighter.

"Whoa," Dustmoon said. "Have a look at that."

Asteroidpelt looked at her. She stared at the sky. He followed her gaze and saw Earth's moon, about five times bigger than it was in the real world, shining down on them. It scared him at first. He thought it was about to fall and crush them, but soon he thought it might replace the sun as his favorite thing in the sky. _If only it was real._

"Asteroidpelt, look!"

He followed Dustmoon's eyes again. On the ground there were white footprints, glowing like puddles of liquid that might have dripped from the moon itself to light a path. The trail weaved past him. He put a paw on one, but he didn't feel it. It was still there when he removed his paw. They trailed out of the camp, heading farther from the lake.

He nodded at Dustmoon and ran, following the trail in case it decided to disappear. The prints took him far from camp, even across a thunderpath and past where he'd guess RiverClan would mark the border of their territory. He had trouble seeing again and feared that the fog was coming back, but he realized it was only his own puffs of breath pelting him in the face.

The footprints stopped at the base of a tree and faded away. There were scratch marks leading up the trunk.

He looked up.

A cat was sitting in the tree.

"Moondust?"

She looked down. It _was_ Moondust. Her face lit up, but then her eyes darted around. "Get up here!"

Asteroidpelt sprung at the tree and grabbed on with his claws. He climbed and pulled himself to a branch next to her.

She nuzzled him. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"What happened?"

"I… I think I got lost in a dream. I couldn't wake up, even when it turned into a nightmare."

Asteroidpelt was relieved to find her, but he was also curious. "We checked so many places already; the Moonpool, the underground HQ, the RiverClan camp. Why did you come to this tree?"

"You were all the way at the Moonpool?" Moondust shook her head. "I'm sorry to cause such a trip. And to answer your question, it's my favorite tree. I didn't know where else to go." She looked up at the tree, as if taking pride in its mere presence.

Asteroidpelt leaned forward. "You said, your favorite tree?"

"Yeah." She purred. "Cometfur and I climbed it when we were apprentices. We told stories. One I told made her laugh so hard she fell and sprained her leg." She winced at the memory. "At first I thought she was yowling in pain, but it turned out she was still laughing. That was my first meaningful experience as a medicine cat."

"Tell _me _that story!" Dustmoon said from the ground.

"Dustmoon? You're here too? How?"

"I was trapped in your body! Ya really gotta get in shape!" Dustmoon jumped at the tree and tried pulling herself up, but her legs gave up and she fell back down.

Moondust laughed. "Hypocrite! You're―" Her ears shot up. "Oh no."

Asteroidpelt leaned closer to her. "What?"

She hissed, "We gotta hide somewhere else. Dustmoon can't climb."

"Hide from what?

"I don't know what they are." Moondust dropped to the lowest branch, then climbed down to the ground. She touched heads with Dustmoon. "Is there a way out if this place?"

Asteroidpelt climbed down and jumped the last few tail-lengths. He landed with a hard impact. His bitten leg collapsed under the pressure and he stumbled.

"You okay?" Moondust asked. "I'll have a look at that paw as soon as we're safe."

"I'm fine." Asteroidpelt looked toward the Clan territories. "I saw us sleeping when we first came to this place. It was like a see-through version of ourselves. I think getting back to them might be our way out. They were on the brim of the lake near the ShadowClan and ThunderClan border."

Moondust nodded. "Let's get back before―" She looked over Asteroidpelt's shoulder. "They're here again!"

Asteroidpelt flipped around. _What... are those? _

At first he thought they were a new breed of badgers, judging by their size. Then he saw how smooth and gray their skin was. They crawled on twig-thin legs and had huge, bulbous, bodies.

Their appearance reminded Asteroidpelt of his days as an apprentice, working in the elders' den, paws smeared in mouse bile to rid the elders' pelts of―

_Ticks?_

Asteroidpelt backed away. Those creatures, Furrier Ticks, were no annoying pests. They crawled in a pack of about half a dozen and looked like they could suck a cat's blood dry in one quick gulp.

He readied his claws and fluffed out his pelt.

"Run, ya idiot!" Dustmoon said.

Asteroidpelt stepped back again. _Runners are survivors in the Furrier. Right. _He turned tail and ran, chasing after Moondust and Dustmoon.

He didn't dare look over his shoulder. The sound of scuttling from behind seemed to get louder, so he worked his legs harder. He imagined those giant things speeding across the ground, kicking up leaves and twigs, and tilling a layer of dirt.

They ran over the thunderpath, through the RiverClan camp, and burst out of the tree-line next to the dry lake.

Moondust slowed and ran next to Asteroidpelt. "Let's head for the island. Maybe they can't cross the log."

Asteroidpelt nodded. The Clans met at an island connected to the shore by a thick log. If it was still there in the Furrier, it might make a safer route than running across the barren lakebed.

He glanced over his shoulder.

The Furrier Ticks were a few fox-lengths behind them, tearing down shrubs and leaves as they exited the forest.

Their full torsos made Asteroipelt's stomach turn. Ticks were only huge and shiny _after _sucking blood. He wondered what poor creatures had already been caught.

"Go!" Dustmoon hissed at Moondust. "We can fight if we need to!"

Moondust climbed onto the log and glanced back. "Don't fight! Run!"

Asteroidpelt made it to the log and Dustmoon scurried across the rotting bark. The sound of the ticks pounding across the ground grew louder.

Asteroidpelt flung himself onto the log before they could reach him.

The leading tick crashed into the log, rolling it and sending Asteroidpelt off the edge. He expected to be submerged in murky water, but instead fell a few tail lengths and hit the mossy lakebed.

A tick moved beside him and he jumped to his feet. The log had fallen on the tick and the creature was struggling beneath it.

_StarClan _can _be here, _Asteroidpelt thought, marveling at the miracle. The other ticks waited at the shore line, as if unable to travel down the steep ground toward him.

Moondust called from the island, "Asteroidpelt, get up here!"

He looked up the incline. With so much dead brush in the way, he knew he'd have a hard time getting up there. "I'll go around the island! It's not too far!"

Moondust didn't move.

"He can take care of himself," Dustmoon said. "Earlier he fought off a monster single-pawed."

Moondust nodded, looked at Asteroidpelt one last time, and walked away.

Dustmoon purred at Asteroidpelt, "Be careful, idiot." She ran after Moondust.

Asteroidpelt sighed, trying to slow his panting, and started heading around the island to get back to his real body.

There was a crack behind him.

He turned and saw that the tick had broken the log in two and was getting to its feet. It charged Asteroidpelt, but a black fog blocked its path.

The fog formed another shadow cat between Asteroidpelt and the tick. Its eyeless face stared at Asteroidpelt.

"Sorry my friend killed your firefly eyes," Asteroidpelt said with clenched teeth.

_Your paw, hold it out._

Something about the voice―its resonance, maybe, compelled Asteroidpelt to do so. He assumed the shadow wanted his bitten paw, and held that one out. After such a vigorous run, the vine that Nimbus wrapped around his leg had fallen off.

_Good._

The tick struck forward, through the shadow, and bit Asteroidpelt's paw.

He pulled himself back, hissing as loud as he could. The tick's fangs clamped his paw like fox-trap.

"_I... hate you!" _he said, hoping the shadow heard it.

The tick let go and Asteroidpelt fell backward. He held his paw off the ground and looked at it. He expected to see something horrible and mutilated, but it looked fine, not even bearing an open wound or mark. It still hurt like the Dark Forest, though.

He staggered back and laid on the ground, vision blurred with adrenaline. Even if he'd survived that, there was no way he'd be fit to run back to his body and escape the Furrier. Limp, maybe, but not run.

The tick was having problems of its own a fox-length away. It spun around like it was using a broken compass to get a bearing on Asteroidpelt. Then it gave up and plopped to the ground. Its legs squirmed for a few moments, then stopped moving.

The shadow reformed next to it.

_Pain is a worthy sacrifice for extracting the venom._

Asteroidpelt panted, too beaten to reply.

The shadow came closer until its foggy maw was a mouse-length from Asteroidpelt's face.

_Now you'll return the favor._

It walked away.

_Enjoy the Furrier._

* * *

Moondust awoke in a cool den. It wasn't the one she fell asleep in. She stood up.

"Are you… Moondust?"

She saw Cometfur staring at her.

"We are Moondust _and_ Dustmoon."

Cometfur looked down. "So you're still not fixed."

Oortcloud leaned against Cometfur's shoulder. He snored, and Cometfur shoved him away. He yawned and shook the sleep out of his eyes. "Oh, the mission over?"

"We think so," Moondust said, looking at Asteroidpelt. "He should be awake by now."

Another figure in the den moved into the torchlight. "I think―I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Oh, right!" Oortcloud jumped forward. "This is Merald!"

"It's Em," he said.

"Merald, Moondust. Moondust, Merald."

Em rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I'm glad to see you're okay. Your sister told me you can help your friend… Starscream, was it?" He looked across the den.

Moondust followed his eyes. "When… did _this _happen?"

"This morning," Cometfur said under her breath. "When you were someone else."

Moondust leaned over Starscreech, reeling in a mental list of materials needed to heal him. "We'll need a lot of thyme." She snickered, knowing Dustmoon would find that funny.

Dustmoon didn't laugh.

"Help yourself to my medicine," Em said.

Moondust padded around Asteroidpelt, toward the herb pile.

Oortcloud purred. "Dustmoon said we should use thyme earlier."

Cometfur turned away. "Shut up."

Moondust came back to Starscreech with a bundle of herbs in her mouth. "What's her problem?"

Em spoke up, "I think she's…" He trailed off. "Nevermind."

Oortcloud nudged Cometfur. "Unlike ol' Merald, _I'm _not afraid of offending anyone! I think she was worried Dustmoon was here to stay. Speaking of her, is Dustmoon still around?"

"Of course." Moondust said. She looked at Dustmoon. "I know it's Saturday, your day off, but before you leave… thanks. I'm glad I have friends like you and Asteroidpelt."

Dustmoon's eyes were as wide as the Moonpool. She stared at Asteroidpelt's nest. "Ya see it too... right?"

"See what?" Moondust turned away from Starscreech and gave her attention to the waking tom next to her. "He looks fine."

Dustmoon shook her head. "That shadow starin at me don't look fine."

* * *

_Epilogue_

A blotched tabby she-cat jumped from her nest. "_Orionpelt!_"

The tom that had been lying next to her raised his head. "What's wrong?" In an instant he was to his feet, focused on the den's entrance. "Is it… _him?_"

"No, no," the she-cat said. "I'm sorry to scare you. It was a dream. Or… not."

"Oh." The tom, a spotted tabby, laid back down. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yes," she said. "I think… it was a vision. I think I just had a conversation with our son."

The tom's ears flicked up. "You mean―wait, how? Why do you think that?"

"How, I don't know. It was too real. At first I was in the ThunderClan camp. Next thing I know, he's lying on the ground nearby."

The tom stood again. "What happened?"

"We talked. It was so bizarre. I asked if he remembered me, and…" She looked down. "He said... he mentioned Kuiperpelt."

Orionpelt nuzzled her, tail sweeping around to make comforting contact. "Oh, Lunaheart. Wherever he is, he's alive. That's what matters, right?"

Lunaheart rubbed her muzzle against his shoulder. "I hope it was a vision. Not just a dream."

The tom sighed. "Look, I know you try to avoid talking about _him._ I get that it reminds you of Kuiperpelt and others like―"

"Orbitail?"

"Yeah. Yeah, him." Orionpelt shook his head. "I don't think we should try to dismiss the past anymore. Not if our kit could still be alive. If you believe it was a vision, then it was a vision."

"Maybe we should go back to the Clans," she said.

"No," Orionpelt said. "What if Scorpiustail actually went back like he told us he would?"

"StarClan, I hope not." Lunaheart leaned back and looked him in the eyes. "His return would be the end of them."


	7. Oortcloud Thanksgiving

A/N: I'm a bit late with this chapter! (I have writer's block to blame.) I hope you still have a bit of Thanksgiving spirit left before moving on to the next holiday, whether that be Hanukkah, Christmas, or New Years. It's really fun writing these holiday chapters, and I plan to do one for every season of the story.

The holiday for Season 3 will likely involve Easter, and Season 4 will be Halloween. (The religious holidays like Christmas and Easter don't affect the plot in any way so it's not necessary to read them if you don't celebrate those holidays. I respect all beliefs and I don't want to seem like I'm forcing mine upon anyone. These are all written in good fun!)

**This is important regarding the story. **I realize that some might be confused with how the last chapter ended. I don't think many will care, considering that a lot of cartoons end on a crazy note. (An episode of Invader Zim ended with Earth being destroyed!) But I know this isn't a cartoon, even though it is inspired and influenced by them. If you must imagine what happened, **assume that, between chapters, Moondust went back into the Furrier and saved Asteroidpelt. This episode happens a day after the last one ended.**

Thanks for reading the note. Enjoy this scrumptious chapter…

* * *

Space CLAN

Season 2 Holiday

Oortcloud Thanksgiving

* * *

"I'm glad we got _somebody _to trust! I only like one of them Numas. Checkers."

Asteroidpelt shook his head. "Remember, Oortcloud. We still don't know what to think about them. We just know the Caramels are nice, so we're celebrating our peace. And _slow down!_"

Oortcloud slowed. He was getting a little too hungry, and his growling stomach told his legs to move faster when food was nearby.

Cometfur looked over Asteroidpelt's shoulder at Oortcloud. "By the way, great idea! Celebrating with food! Love it."

Moondust sighed. "We haven't forgotten the last celebration you loved and how that went."

Cometfur rolled her eyes. "Just because Santa couldn't visit us in space doesn't mean we had a bad Christmas. It was still fun to decorate."

"We were still disappointed," Moondust said.

Oortcloud chuckled, eyes darting back and forth. "Sorry I suggested that since you had such a bad time."

"Yeah," Cometfur said, narrowing her eyes at Moondust. "_Such _a bad time!"

"It was just a little overhyped. Okay?"

"We're almost there. Enough with Christmas," Asteroidpelt said. They stepped into the clearing, the outside of the Caramel camp next to the skyscraping mountain. "Be polite, please."

The clearing was dotted with colorful creatures, the rabbits. They each hopped with clear direction; everyone had a purpose that day and it was for preparing the feast. In the middle of the clearing there were piles of grass for the rabbits to eat. That seemed odd to Oortcloud considering the piles were grass laying on grass.

What made sense to him was the giant turkey between all the grass piles. He caught it yesterday with a bit of Cometfur's help. It looked like a normal sized turkey from here, but they were still a dozen fox-lengths away. He suggested they climb inside and eat it from the inside out, but Asteroidpelt disapproved of that, calling it primal.

"_They're here!" _said a voice. Oortcloud saw its source, a certain purple and green rabbit running toward them. Auro.

"Heeeey!" Oortcloud ran forward a few tail-lengths. "We haven't hung out lately! Unless you can call _hanging from my maw_ _while comatose _hanging out!" He laughed.

Auro hesitated. "I must'a been so out of it last time we spoke." He tilted his head. "Where's that other one?"

Oortcloud looked back at his group. "Starscreech? Oh, he's―"

"He's sorry he couldn't make it," Asteroidpelt cut in. He stepped forward and let out an awkward purr. "We're glad to hear how eager you sounded when we arrived. It's… uh, nice to have allies."

"Yeah, that. Follow me." Auro turned and hopped toward the gathering spot, crunching grass and leaves beneath his paws with every bound. "Hey! Büla! Where the guests gonna sit?"

Büla was already heading their way. "Anywhere they want. Good to see you again, Asteroidpelt, Cometfur, Oortcloud, Moondust. Could Starscreech not come?"

Oortcloud's eyes widened. _Whoa. _He couldn't believe she remembered all their names. The only rabbit names he could name were Checkers, Merald, and Auro. Oh, and that other one who helped them find Melard. Dimbust, was it?

"No, he had something important come up." Asteroidpelt was less tense in Büla's presence, as if her charisma calmed his social anxiety. "He sent his very best wishes."

Oortcloud thought, _Yeah, the wishes that we not disturb his sleep to mention we're going to a gathering. _He thought Starscreech was lucky, being able to sleep so much. "I'm here for food. Carnivore, and all that."

Büla led them to the gathering spot, where they stood in an awkward silence while everyone else was hectic to get every pile of grass in order.

Then it was time for the meal, and they all sat down in a misshapen circle. The cats were dispersed among the rabbits since the Tribe was ecstatic to have an alien sit next to them at dinner.

Büla called out over the chit-chat, "Everyone calm down! I know this is all worth the excitement, but before we can get on with the feast, we've got to make a toast."

When she doesn't continue, Asteroidpelt says, "Yes! I know my friends and I are all so happy to have some allies. It was a rough trip in space, with the catnip that makes you go nuts, the murderous stalker…"

Moondust sat a few feet away, staring at him and mouthing the words _shut up. _

"Right." Asteroidpelt cleared his throat. "We're glad to be here."

The crowd turned back to Büla. "I'm glad to hear our enthusiasm isn't one-sided. Let this feast be a tribute to our cooperation!"

Oortcloud nodded in agreement. Then he realized that he wasn't able to reach the turkey in the middle of the circle. "But the food's so far away."

Everyone understood the same thing in that instance, and jumped forward to get to the food that had been teasing them for too long. Oortcloud pushed through a crowd of rabbits, each grabbing a bundle of grass and heading back to their seats. Oortcloud almost didn't notice them.

He was focused on the turkey, watching its yummy juices glisten in the sunlight and the droplets of moisture vibrate in the breeze. His mouth watered and his stomach tugged for attention.

Then the turkey swayed a bit more than he expected. It swayed all the way into a standing position, then blasted through the crowd and past the tree-line.

"_What!" _Oortcloud screeched, looking back and forth from where the turkey was to where it had gone. "_What in Wal-Mart's name!"_

"I thought you killed it!" Moondust said, running toward him.

"I―I did!" Oortcloud stammered, jaw agape. "_How?_"

Cometfur chased the turkey. "After it!"

Oortcloud followed. In a haze, he looked over his shoulder to see a dumbstruck Asteroidpelt staring after him with with huge eyes, not standing out in the crowd of rabbits. Oortcloud shook his head. "No way that turkey just got up and walked!"

Cometfur said, "There's apparently a way! Hurry! We can't lose it." Oortcloud sped up to her. "I got its scent."

Oortcloud took a whiff, smelling the meaty turkey. His stomach roared like an engine and forced his legs to move faster. "It's not getting away!"

He ran past the tree-line and into the woods. Then his foot caught a high root and he face-planted.

Cometfur leaned over him. "Get up!" She bit the scruff of his neck and heaved him to his feet. "Now we gotta get the trail again."

Oortcloud groaned, rubbed his nose with a forepaw, and felt it throb. He inhaled but didn't catch the scent.

Cometfur paced, nose lifted to track a scent. "Now what? I don't smell anything other than… Catnip?"

"_What's going on_?" said a squeaky voice.

Aquila, Lyra, and Susan had followed them. Lyra said, "You idiots forgot about us!"

Susan stepped closer, frowning. "We had to spend all yesterday with those freaks."

Oortcloud looked at Cometfur, but her scowl suggested that she was too angry to apologize. "Sorry, I forgot you were with us. Want to help catch that turkey?"

Aquila nodded. "Why do you think we're even here? We want a piece."

"A piece?" Cometfur hissed. "Oh, fine! Didn't know you ate meat."

"We've never had it before," Lyra said. "But we don't knock it til we've tried it."

"We lost its trail," Oortcloud said, sniffing to be sure. "You wouldn't happen to be expert trackers, would you?"

"It just so happens," Susan said, "that we're the planet's most incompetent trackers."

"Great!" Oortcloud said.

Cometfur sighed. "That means they can't track it."

"Oh."

"Let's just go," Cometfur said, heading toward where the turkey had gone. "It was fast, but maybe its stamina is dung."

"I hope," Oortcloud said. He and the three toy mice walked a steady line behind Cometfur, some with their noses raised and some with their noses dragging in the dirt like a bloodhound.

"Smell that?" Cometfur raised her ears. "I think I got it again."

Something big dropped ahead of her with weight that shook the ground. It was the turkey. It held a strong bipedal stance and its succulent scent overpowered the catnip.

Oortcloud looked to the mice, hoping Lyra would whoop its tail like she did on the robo-cats on Scorpiustail's ship, but she and her sisters had collapsed.

Cometfur said, "You shoulda stayed dead!"

Oortcloud joined in. "Yeah! That's right, you… pile of _food_! You're goin straight to our stomachs!"

The turkey leaned back and shook, like it was laughing in silence. Then it stood still, and there was a muffled voice raising in pitch.

The turkey exploded once it reached a certain frequency. Guts and, oddly enough, more than two turkey legs were displaced across the ground.

A donkey stood in its place, bobbing up and down to an unheard rhythm. It sang in a flawless soprano voice, "It's meeeee! I was the turkey all along! Meeeee!"

Oortcloud and Cometfur stared. They stopped panting and Oortcloud jumped back, his pelt bristling.

"Sir Charleston the Third!"

The donkey was still dancing. He spoke in a normal voice, octaves lower than his singing voice. "About time we meet again in person. Why do I keep finding myself in your nightmares?"

Oortcloud snorted. "Why do you keep _chasing _me in my nightmares?"

"It's fun." With graceful ease, Sir Charleston leaped a fox-length closer to the group. "On this planet for days and it takes me til now to find your hiding spot."

Cometfur stood her ground. "Hiding? We're _stranded!_ And no help from you or any of your other fan-club buddies."

Sir Charleston pushed his face close to Cometfur's and exhaled the scent of onions. "They're not my buds. They tricked me, lied to me, told me they were a band in need of a lead singer. But really, all they wanted was an extra hand so they could get with helping _you things._" He stepped back and stood tall. "Then, once the dust settles, the guys tell me they don't know a thing about music. What a load of donkey―"

"Shut up! You destroyed our turkey!" Cometfur hissed and fluffed out her pelt. "I don't care if you got your time wasted! You just wasted _my _time, when I could've been eating!"

Oortcloud crouched behind her, whimpering. "Make him go away, please!"

"You better wish our medicine cat was here! She'd be your only hope at living!" She jumped at his face, claws extended.

For the first time, Oortcloud saw Sir Charleston's face contort into a look of pure fear. He jumped back, but it was no maneuver for dodging Cometfur's pounce.

She latched onto his muzzle, digging in with her claws and holding on tight. She tried biting his face as he flailed around in a desperate attempt at escape, but she couldn't open her jaw wide enough to sink her teeth in. With or without her teeth, that idiot was going down.

Sir Charleston _hee-haw_'d and kicked with his rear legs. That didn't do much good, except for when his legs bucked a tree. It shook a loose branch from the canopy, one that probably broken when he climbed it.

The branch hit Cometfur. There wasn't a heavy impact, but the thin twigs scratching down her neck and back made her lose control.

"_Hang on!_" Oortcloud said.

She lost a grip with one forepaw, and Sir Charleston's kicking shook her other arms free. She hit the ground and within a second was balanced and ready to jump at him again. She jumped straight for his face but she was hit by something midair and lost her bearings.

Sir Charleston stepped to the side and Cometfur sailed past him and hit the dirt. "More where that came from, savage puff-ball."

Cometfur hissed, face scrunched at the pain biting her nose. "What… you throw?" She stumbled and fell to her side.

Sir Charleston raised a hoof behind his head, dug around in his mane because he didn't have pockets, and pulled out a cylindrical object. "Done my research on your kind." He smirked and tossed it toward her.

_Thud. _

Cometfur sniffed at it, then jumped straight up. She landed next to it and scuttered toward Oortcloud. She said over her shoulder, "_Where'd you get that?_"

"What?" Oortcloud asked, but Cometfur didn't answer him. "What are they?"

Sir Charleston laughed and tossed another. It landed next to them and rolled up to Oortcloud. He could recognize that shape and color anywhere. _Snake. _He jumped back.

"Run!" Cometfur said and sped away.

Oortcloud raced after her, then skidded to a halt. _Wait. _He turned back around and committed to one of the bravest things he'd ever done. He ran back toward Sir Charleston in a zig-zag maneuver, managing to dodge all the snakes thrown rapid-fire at him.

He slid across the ground, time slowing to a near halt in his rush of adrenaline. He saw snakes flying through the air, missing him by no more than a few mouse-lengths; and he saw Sir Charleston, who had an evil grin stretched across his face. Oortcloud gathered up all three of the mice sisters in his mouth with three quick snaps of his maw. Then he scrambled to his feet and bolted after Cometfur.

His heart pounded faster than his legs. He burst out of the tree-line and into the clearing where the feast was. Cometfur was a couple fox-lengths ahead.

Oortcloud tried to call out, "Help," but formed just a muffled scream beneath the mice toys. He ran to Asteroidpelt and jumped behind him.

Asteroidpelt said, "Is that… Sir―"

"Charleston! Yep, him!" Oortcloud shook behind Asteroidpelt. "And he got snakes!"

Sir Charleston barreled toward Asteroidpelt and Oortcloud, flinging snakes left and right. Asteroidpelt leaned back on unsteady paws but didn't move nonetheless. Everyone in the clearing was either stiff in fear or running for their lives.

"_Stop!_" said Asteroidpelt and another voice at the same time. Büla exchanged a look with Asteroidpelt, then they looked back at the aggressive beast.

Sir Charleston slid to a stop in front of Asteroidpelt.

Asteroidpelt took a breath and leaned forward. "Where's Raj?"

"Course that's all you care about," Sir Charleston said. "Raj, Raj, Raj. Fanclub, fanclub, fanclub."

"If you're here, he's here. _Where is he?_"

"Calm down, hissyfit." Sir Charleston sat down, eyes off in thought. "And nah, just cause I'm here doesn't mean Raj is. He's probably still in space."

"Then how're you here?"

Sir Charleston held out another snake impaled on his hoof.

Asteroidpelt sniffed at it. "That's a cucumber."

"Wha?" Sir Charleston said. "You know?"

"Yes, I know. Now tell me where Raj is."

"I did. He's in space."

Asteroidpelt took a step forward. "Then why aren't you?"

Cometfur growled at Sir Charleston. Her tail swished and she drew her ears back.

Sir Charleston let out a long sigh and shifted his tireless legs. "I put on a suit and hopped outta Raj's ship." He grinned at Oortcloud. "The ride was boring, so I figured it would be more fun to terrorize him from outside the portholes of your ship. It was."

"That's why I threw a blanket over my window!" Oortcloud hissed.

Büla made her way to Asteroidpelt, keeping her eyes on Sir Charleston. "You brought this thing here?"

Asteroidpelt leaned back and flicked his tail. "Um, you're not blaming us for this, are you? We had no idea he was on our ship!"

"No," Büla said, "that isn't what I meant. He's from your world though, isn't he?"

Sir Charleston said, "Excuse me, she called me a _thing._"

"That's what you called _us _earlier!" Cometfur yowled.

Asteroidpelt said to Oortcloud, "You know him better than I do. Can you tell us anything about him? Like where he's from."

Oortcloud stared at Sir Charleston. "He's evil. Must've been born in dark matter billions of lightyears from any star that could cast a light on his heart. Or whatever he has in his chest. Wouldn't surprise me if he's hollow."

Sir Charleston gasped. "Don't bring my mother into this feud. She was a nice lady. Just so happened to be a piñata."

Asteroidpelt looked at his paws, eyes closed and nose scrunched up. "If you're only trying to do harm, you better leave."

"What's that?" Sir Charleston asked. "Itty bitty creatures telling me to leave? What if I don't wanna? There's still fun to be had."

Cometfur hissed, raised a paw, and showed off exposed claws.

"Alright! Don't have to tell me twice. I'll get outta your hair for now." Sir Charleston dipped his head at Büla. "Sorry to disturb those not involved."

Büla watched him turn and walk away. Oortcloud watched too, not believing his nemesis was backing off so easily.

Asteroidpelt stood up and stretched his legs. "That was unexpected. How'd you guys find him? And is the turkey any more cooperative?"

"He _was_ the turkey," Cometfur said. "He destroyed it. We could scrounge for pieces, but I don't wanna put anything he wore in my mouth."

Asteroidpelt gave Oortcloud a look, as if he suspected him of withholding information about Sir Charleston. Oortcloud would admit his description was abstract, but it was his true feelings about Sir Charleston so he decided to stand by it.

"Where's Moondust?"

Asteroidpelt turned to Cometfur and lowered his voice. "She went to check on Starscreech." He walked toward Büla and sat in front of her. "Thank you for putting up with this. I've been in a situation like it before. Offer someone a home and they've got hostility swarming your camp on the morrow."

Büla nodded. "It is difficult, but we are allies. We'll do what we can to support you as long as you don't look for trouble."

Auro called from the crowd of dispersed Tribe-members around them. "Yeah, and it's not like _our _food was destroyed! We got nothing to be mad about!"

Oortcloud noticed the intact piles of grass where the feast was going to take place.

"Maybe we can make the most of this," a rabbit said, standing up taller than the others so his voice would be heard. "We have an abundance of cucumbers all over camp!"

Cometfur groaned and walked toward the white river. "I'm going hunting."

Asteroidpelt sniffed at a cucumber. "I guess we could try one. What do you think?" He nudged it closer to Oortcloud.

Oortcloud took a small bite. "Not _that _bad. What's a cucumber, anyway?"

"They're some sort of vegetable," Asteroidpelt said.

Oortcloud froze, stared at the cucumber, and let the mushy bite fall out of his mouth. Knowing its classification in the food pyramid scared him more than the snakes and Sir Charleston combined. "Get that healthy garbage away from me!"


End file.
